MAKING OF: Zacarías Martínez de la Riva – Below Zero
This Friday, January 29th, the movie ‘Below Zero’ directed by Lluís Quílez and with a score by Zacarías Martínez de la Riva was released on Netflix. In this short article, we are not going to spoil the plot of the movie, and we are going to talk about its soundtrack, which was composed and recorded under the restrictions of the state of alarm effective in Spain at that moment.
In Zacarías Martínez de la Riva’s words:
“The lockdown has been a phase in which the head is not where it has to be, and everything is more complicated”. The security measures were very different in each country and in Spain it was impossible to record 40 string orchestra musicians complying with the regulations. We had to do it in Budapest and remotely, giving instructions from the composition studio in Madrid.”
Regarding the soundtrack and what it brings to the movie:
“Below Zero is a movie in disguise, really. It looks and feels like a thriller, but it’s a heart-breaking drama that bears a terrible moral dilemma at its core.
Music had to help with that disguise, fulfilling the crude physical part when needed with extensive use of all kinds of percussion (synthetic or acoustic) and electronics, while providing footing and support for the moral struggle with the use of restrained strings and a pipe organ. In that struggle we find our two main characters: our protagonist, whom due to his role in the film, has no real leitmotiv till the very end; and the antagonist, whom is depicted by the use of a slightly detuned French horn and a high string cluster.”
The soundtrack has been digitally released by MovieScore Media (Mikael Carlsson) and can be found here:
https://moviescoremedia.com/newsite/catalogue/below-zero-zacarias-m-de-la-riva/
Video with the Making of (2m 28s):
