According to the film’s composer and musician Kanding Ray, Oliver Lacks’ Silat is ambitious and radical.
“Sirât” has been shortlisted for Oscars in numerous categories, including casting, cinematography, international feature film, sound, and original score.
The film tells the story of a father, Luis (Sergi López), and his son, Esteban (Bruno Nuñez), who arrive at a desert rave in the mountains of Morocco. They’re on a mission: to go individually among ravers and hand out photos of Lewis’ daughter Merle, who disappeared from a rave venue more than five months ago.
Their hopes begin to fade as they travel across the desert for one last party.
In it, Ray’s techno score stands out in its own right, with the first sonic beat blaring through the speakers for nearly 17 minutes. As the characters face danger and their emotional torment mounts, the score takes on an ambient tone. As Ray admits, seeing that change was the hardest part.
Here, Ray spoke to Variety about joining the film early on, setting the music to the script rather than the footage, and creating a techno-driven score.
What was it about the script that led you to take part in this project?
It was clear that it was an ambitious and radical project. This is my type of movie. It works on different levels and doesn’t explain things too much. It really pushes the boundaries in many ways.
When Oliver sent me the script, I was really hooked. Of course I had some hesitation because I thought he was very far along in certain things and even by my standards, but I trusted Oliver and his vision.
Your background is in techno and experimental music. Was that what Oliver told you to do?
The film begins with a 17-minute rave. So obviously techno elements had to be a big part of it. But for me, that was the easiest part to compose because that’s my job. Finding the right tone and texture was easy.
The hardest part was finding the right amount of energy, aggression, violence, and sadness to support the story and illustrate what dialogue couldn’t express, as the music blends into a dreamy, ambient soundscape and a psychedelic, spiritual journey. It was also the most rewarding.
The score is a character and you feel this change as it transitions from intense energy to ambient sound, how did you go about adjusting and timing it properly to make that transition work?
We worked on pacing many times. Pace and key were the keys to making it work. I was hoping for a gradual breakup, but at the same time there are some shocks happening in this movie. They are on a trip and everything goes well, but then something happens and it becomes a nightmare. (The characters enter a minefield, and one of the main characters, Jade, is killed in an explosion).
It was necessary to express those changes, and that was the most difficult clue in composing. I couldn’t find anything big enough, hard enough, violent enough, or wide enough to express what just happened. But as I did more research, I ended up layering things together to create this giant monster that hinted at the scale of the desert. That’s what brought me back. This is the story of the people, but it is a story much bigger than them, a universal story.
We previously talked about desert sounds and how the score includes elements of sand and wind. How did you achieve that?
The great thing about working with electronic music is that it’s a very abstract medium. I don’t have any preconceptions about how it will turn out in the end. I work directly with the modular synthesizer, so I select the sound source and mix the waveforms. It’s like dealing with the structure of the sound itself. It doesn’t function like an instrument that you direct. The good thing is that you don’t place any value on what should be music and what isn’t music. Therefore, all these natural sounds not only become a source of inspiration, but also a sound source in themselves.
This movie has a beautiful fusion of sound and music. How did you work with Laia Casanova, the film’s sound designer?
Laia recorded a lot and took a very pure approach to recording. She recorded the sound of the rattle and tried to recreate the voice of the rave. She recorded it in analog with a microphone, which made it very easy to blend it with the score.
Since you wrote the script, has it changed much since you saw the movie and got the scenes?
We were very surprised that it was working, albeit a little. Oliver often says that the filming executed the script really well. I probably had to adjust or redo 10-20%. But to give this continuity, we always had the desert in mind.
There’s a great line from Jade that says, “Music isn’t meant to be listened to, it’s meant to be danced to.” What does that mean to you as a musician?
This is a great line. Because this is the moment when they realize that they are not from the same culture. Lewis is frankly annoyed by this kind of music. But the moment she said this, he said, “Oh, that’s what my daughter always says.” At that moment, he suddenly understood that music had a role, although he had never really felt close to her. Music was about having a good time and playing some harmless music in the background, but to his daughter and the people of his culture, it was about much more. It’s about discovering them yourself on the dance floor with your friends and community.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
