the importance of music and sound in Oliver Lax’s final reel

With the rise of cinema, the arena of the desert had to be taken out of sight. Several times it was possible to make a film such extraordinary coherence between image, sound and soundtrack as An orphana great success for Oliver Lax, who will compete for the Oscar for the best international film and, more precisely, for the best sound.

Earlier in the Goya Awards, celebrated this Saturday in Barcelona, An orphan The competition will be held in 11 categoriessurpassed only in nominations by Los Domingoswith 13

A dark story starring Sergi López begins he’s on a rampage of electronic music in the desert in search of your missing hija, choose better film, direction, original direction, production direction, photography, editing, art direction, makeup and hair, special effects, sound and original music.

These last categories were thanks Music by Kangding Ray —alias of the French David Letellier— y sound work by Amanda Villavieja, Lai Casanovas and Yasminathat you have his story at ser the first all-female Oscar-nominated team in this category.

By the way, Kangding Ray’s music for the film is harsh and hypnotic techno yes ratos surrounding —tracks the level of action in every moment of the film — that sounds like cruelty, fatalism, impotence before the merciless desert; oxidized cars, blood languishing in the hall, dry mouth, sand trapped in the cone of high voices; but with mystic destels in the form of crystal harps, big notes synthesizers that resemble ultratumba choruses and traditional songs.

The composer builds — he has a license for architecture, he asks himself something that can be seen in his vision of specific cases of music — rhythmic caps and synthetic textures that do not illustrate the action of the obvious form until they give the viewer a state of trance, in accordance with the spiritual and physical drifting of the characters in the desert.

de facto Oliver Laxe and Kangding Ray accompanied the promotion of Sirat s he’s on a rampage, performance and an immersive installation in the Queen Sofia which extend the imagery of the film beyond the screen and invite the viewer to follow the exploration of this relationship between music, dance and trance.

En cuanto al sonido, el trabajo de Villavieja, Casanovas y Praderas parte de un sonido directo extremo, capturado en condiciones hostiles de viento, arena y reverberaciones, que luego se transforma en una escritura sonora muy precisa en la sala de montaje.

Villavieja asume la captación en rodaje, Casanovas se encarga de organizar y diseñar ese material y Praderas culmina el proceso, completando y ajustando el tejido sonoro hasta convertirlo en una banda de sonido que respira con la puesta en escena.

All three insisted that sound should be intentionally used as a writing tool rather than a mere technical reference, something that ties in with the previous trajectory in titles like Like a beast, Parallel mothers or Mimosas.

In many passages, sound design extends or prepares musical inputs — or vice versa — in the way that the viewer is not so polite, but rather continuously directs the dramatic tension, accentuates the appearance of the character, and transforms the scenery into a mystical presence.

This collaboration explains that the film is sometimes characterized by music and sound in prizes like Gaudí and who watches Goya with the label “the film you are watching”, in a context where the sound of Spanish cinema still attacks a certain stigma — on Instagram, for example, common videos circulate among viewers who do not notice anything when they see a dialogue about the voice of the media in a Spanish film —.

After the aforementioned Oscar nomination for Best Sound, An orphan it was nominated in the original and soundtrack categories at the Golden Globes and at the Critics Choice Awards – European critics’ awards – and won the Best Sound Award – among a total of five technical awards – at the European Film Awards.

The film gave Gaudi the awards for Best Sound and Best Original Score — and six other greats —; and Kangding Ray won the Cannes Soundtrack Award at the Festival de Cannes – where the film won the Jurado Award – and the Los Angeles Critics Award.

In Goya, the original music of Kangding Ray will compete with Carla F. Benedicto, for Talent; Iván Palomares de la Encina, Lt Leo and Lou; Julio de la Rosa, Lt Moose tigers; y Aránzazu Calleja, Lt Maspalomas.

In the best sound category An orphan will compete against Bailiff; Los Domingos; Moose tigers y Deaf.