El Paramo/The Wasteland – Creating the Soundtrack – Interview with Diego Navarro & David Casademunt
Yesterday, Thursday, January 6, 2022, was released on Netflix the movie ‘El Páramo / The Wasteland’ directorial debut of David Casademunt, with soundtrack by orchestra conductor and composer Diego Navarro.
The film had already been presented last October 10, 2021 at the Sitges International Film Festival, event to which SoundTrackFest was invited. There, the film had a great reception, but it has been necessary to wait a few months more for everyone to be able to enjoy it.
Below, we leave you the trailer and the link to watch the film on Netflix:
This news would be the news of just another premiere, were it not for the fact that its soundtrack, created by conductor and composer Diego Navarro, was recorded in Krakow in August 2021 and SoundTrackFest was invited to the event.
On Monday 23rd and Tuesday 24th of August, the recording sessions took place at the Polish S-3 TVP Studios in Krakow, where the Beethoven Academy Orchestra conducted by Diego Navarro, gave life for the first time to the soundtrack of the film. In the recording predominated the string section, with the participation of piano, celesta, harp, and flutes.
The technical team of these sessions was formed by Pedro J. Mérida (score coordinator), Gonzalo de Araoz Vigil (assistant to Diego Navarro), and Bartek Staniak (recording engineer), with the presence of Marcin Klejdysz (producer of the Beethoven Academy Orchestra) and Agata Grabowiecka (KBF / Krakow FMF – Film Music Festival). It should be noted that the role of the Krakow FMF and its brotherhood with Fimucité, were fundamental for these recordings to take place in Krakow, days before the celebration of the 14th edition of the festival.
In addition to the technical team, these sessions were attended by the director of the film David Casademunt, very interested in the whole creative process surrounding the music of his movie, and Gorka Oteiza, founder and director of SoundTrackFest, who kept an eye on all the details of the event.
And now, we bring you the special interview we have prepared with Diego Navarro and David Casademunt using material from those recording sessions, and conversations about the process of creating the soundtrack. But before linking to the video, where you can watch the full interview, you can read some excerpts that we found very interesting:
David Casademunt – about the beginnings
A month before starting to shoot, I started to send Diego a lot of materials: concept arts, photographs of the sets we were building, and the storyboard, because for me it was very important that he was also soaking up, from a very early stage, from the DNA of the project.
Diego Navarro – on the sound universe of the film
I wanted El Páramo/The Wasteland to have its own sound universe, certain situations, certain characters, certain musical constructions around all this. If we analyze the score as a whole, I honestly believe it has coherence. It has been crazy because there is a lot of music composed in 4 and a half weeks.
David Casademunt – on the creation of the OST and the mockups
For me, it has been a very enriching experience, not only to witness the creative magic that happens when the musicians and the composer join forces, but also to see how it all works. Also, I’ve been amazed at how complicated it is to make a soundtrack logistically.
There is a big difference between the mockups, which are the creations that are made with the library music during the soundtrack development process, and then the actual sound with the orchestra.
Diego Navarro – about the recording in Krakow with the Beethoven Academy Orchestra
At the level of electronic programming, at the level of percussion, at the level of vocals, I had to do a huge amount of work beforehand, to come to Krakow to record with the Beethoven Academy Orchestra, with which I have worked many times before, but always as a conductor. This is the first time we have recorded my music with them.
David Casademunt – about recording the OST
A symphonic soundtrack like this, for me, it is impossible to be left in the mockups, and of course, I would tell all directors to live this experience, because it is as fertile at a creative level, as the moment when you are writing the script, or the moment when you sit down with the art director and start designing the sets.
VIDEO – EL PÁRAMO/THE WASTELAND – SOUNDTRACK – INTERVIEW WITH DIEGO NAVARRO & DAVID CASADEMUNT
[NOTE: Interview only in Spanish, but you can use YouTube’s automatically translated subtitles]
And to finish this article, we leave you two photo galleries, one from the recording sessions and the other one from the premiere of the movie in Sitges.
We hope you enjoy the interview, the photos, and of course… the movie!
Article by Gorka Oteiza
Pictures by Gorka Oteiza & Rafa Melgar
NOTE: More than a thousand thanks to Rafa Melgar for the great video-montage of the interviews
