PRESS

https://www.filmcommissionmarche.it/mestieri-del-cinema-kristian-sensini-compositore/

Iniziamo il nostro percorso tra i mestieri del cinema con una professione che necessita di una formazione lunga, variegata e di tanta creatività e sensibilità. Oggi vi presentiamo il mestiere del compositore musicale di colonne sonore. Abbiamo intervistato Kristian Sensini, musicista e compositore formatosi al Conservatorio “G.Rossini” di Pesaro il cui ultimo progetto “My Love Affair with Marriage” è fra i 33 lungometraggi d’animazione in corsa per l’Oscar.

Abbiamo pensato di fargli qualche domanda per capire meglio la natura del suo lavoro e come ha fatto a passare dalla passione per la musica a una vera e propria professione dedicata al cinema.

Qual è la sua formazione in campo musicale?

Si tratta di un percorso formativo estremamente variegato e non lineare, del tutto imprevisto e senza una pianificazione precisa. Ho iniziato a prendere le prime lezioni di pianoforte all’età di sei anni su insistenza di mio padre, ma la mia esperienza è stata breve perché ero molto allergico al solfeggio musicale. Nonostante ciò, ero molto interessato all’aspetto creativo della musica. Mio padre, entusiasta, mi comprò un pianoforte a coda, facendo enormi sacrifici, ma poco dopo ho lasciato le lezioni. Fortunatamente, avendo il pianoforte a casa, ho proseguito autonomamente come autodidatta (consiglio sempre di avere strumenti musicali in ogni famiglia, prima o poi qualcuno li suonerà). Durante l’adolescenza e fino ai vent’anni, ho suonato in diverse formazioni rock (come è normale a quell’età), affinando i miei gusti e ampliando la mia conoscenza di generi musicali sempre più complessi. A vent’anni ho iniziato a studiare il flauto traverso, specializzandomi nel jazz presso il conservatorio di Pesaro e studiando musicologia al DAMS di Bologna. Successivamente, ho proseguito i miei studi concentrandomi sulla pedagogia musicale. Durante tutto questo periodo, ho continuato a comporre la mia musica e ad esplorare nuove sonorità utilizzando le prime tecnologie musicali disponibili.

Come è passato da questa esperienza al cinema?

Durante il periodo in cui suonavo jazz, il repertorio includeva anche le mie composizioni originali. Diversi ascoltatori mi hanno fatto notare che i miei brani erano estremamente evocativi dal punto di vista visivo e dello storytelling, onestamente, mi sono sempre ispirato a influenze esterne alla Musica come quadri, libri, sogni e racconti per le mie composizioni. Fin da piccolo sono stato un grande appassionato di cinema. Mio padre mi portava spesso in sala e avevamo una ricca collezione di cassette Betamax che raccontavano tutta la storia del cinema. Il passaggio al mondo del cinema è stato quindi molto naturale per me. Ho avuto la prima opportunità di comporre per un lungometraggio scritto da un amico, Andrea Baldassarri. Successivamente, ho composto i primi brani per la Music Library di Mediaset. Il resto è arrivato attraverso un lungo percorso caratterizzato da alcuni incontri fortunati e dalla possibilità di sfruttare la rete, che ha ridotto le distanze in maniera significativa (infatti, lavoro principalmente per film stranieri). La tenacia è stata fondamentale. I lavori che ho realizzato fino ad oggi sono solo la punta dell’iceberg, dietro di essi ci sono anni di rifiuti, come accade per ogni compositore, sono all’ordine del giorno.

Come nasce una colonna sonora? Parte da un’idea, da una suggestione oppure si tratta di un percorso condiviso con l’autore?

La creazione di una colonna sonora può iniziare da diverse fonti e seguire percorsi variabili. Non esiste un unico approccio standard, poiché dipende dalla situazione specifica e dalla collaborazione tra il compositore ed il regista. In alcuni casi, l’idea per la colonna sonora può partire da una suggestione o un’ispirazione iniziale, che può provenire dal regista, dallo sceneggiatore o anche dal compositore stesso. Questa idea può essere un tema principale, un’atmosfera generale o un concetto che si desidera esprimere attraverso la musica. A partire da questa base, il compositore sviluppa le composizioni musicali che si adattano alla storia, all’ambientazione e all’emozione che si vuole trasmettere. In altri casi, la creazione della colonna sonora può essere un percorso condiviso tra il compositore e l’autore o il regista. Ciò significa che ci sono discussioni e collaborazioni continue durante il processo creativo. Il compositore può lavorare in stretta sinergia con le varie figure autoriali per comprendere appieno le intenzioni della storia e i personaggi, e quindi tradurle in musica. La creazione di una colonna sonora richiede una combinazione di creatività, comunicazione e collaborazione tra il compositore e gli altri membri del team artistico. È un processo dinamico che può evolvere nel corso della produzione del film o della serie e richiede un’attenzione particolare all’armonizzazione tra le immagini, il dialogo e la musica per creare un’esperienza coinvolgente per il pubblico.

L’approccio europeo e quello internazionale sono oltretutto differenti per la legislazione italiana ad esempio il compositore è a tutti gli effetti un coautore del film insieme a regista, soggettista e sceneggiatore. Quando mi è possibile tendo a chiedere di lavorare fin da quando è disponibile il copione per elaborare la tavolozza di suoni da usare, scrivere i temi principali e sviluppare delle idee che vanno poi raffinate una volta che si ha modo di vedere il montato del film. Quando ho a disposizione il materiale definitivo provvedo alla orchestrazione ed alla gestione delle scene cercando di seguire la risposta emotiva che ho in primis come spettatore.

Quali sono i suoi prossimi progetti?

Per scaramanzia di solito non ne parlo (fino a che il film non è annunciato ed in uscita, può capitare spesso di vedere il proprio lavoro sostituito all’ultimo minuto per esigenze produttive). Posso dire che attualmente sono impegnato nella campagna promozionale per il film di animazione My Love Affair With Marriage uscito ad Ottobre negli USA e disponibile in italia sulla Piattaforma Iwonder. Il film (mio secondo lavoro con la regista statunitense Signe Baumane) è in corsa per gli Oscar nelle categorie miglior film di animazione, migliore canzone e migliore colonna sonora (mi sono occupato di entrambe). È una bella sfida perché siamo in gara con i grandi studios come Disney e Netflix, per non parlare delle canzoni che vedono tra i cantanti in gara artisti come Jack Black o Dua Lipa (giusto per nominarne due).

Ci racconti qualcosa di più su “My Love Affair With Marriage” e sui suoi precedenti progetti

“My Love Affair With Marriage” rappresenta il secondo lungometraggio di animazione che vede la collaborazione tra me e la regista Signe Baumane, già membro dell’Academy. La partnership artistica ha già dimostrato di essere vincente con il precedente film “Rocks in my Pockets”, che nel 2014 è stato selezionato tra i 20 candidati per la categoria “Miglior Film di Animazione” agli Oscar. 

“My Love Affair With Marriage” ha già ottenuto importanti successi nei festival cinematografici, tra cui una vittoria al prestigioso Festival di Annecy. La sua candidatura agli European Film Awards, noti come gli “Oscar Europei”, è un ulteriore riconoscimento che mi ha anche aperto le porte a una prestigiosa onorificenza di cui vado molto orgoglioso: l’invito a diventare membro dell’European Film Academy (uno dei soli dieci compositori italiani all’interno di questa prestigiosa Academy). Pur lavorando prevalentemente all’estero, ho avuto modo di collaborare con la RAI per la quinta stagione della serie “Provaci Ancora Prof” per la quale ho scritto le musiche insieme al Maestro Pino Donaggio (responsabile della colonna sonora delle prime 5 stagioni).

Biografia e riconoscimenti

Kristian Sensini ha studiato al Conservatorio “G. Rossini ” di Pesaro composizione, arrangiamento, pianoforte e flauto traverso. Ha frequentato corsi di perfezionamento e seminari di composizione con Ennio Morricone, Ludovic Bource, Nicola Piovani, Michael Giacchino, Danny Elfman, Bruno Coulais, Abel Korzeniowski, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Hans Zimmer, Murray Gold, Nathan Barr, Dave Grusin e Christopher Lennertz. Ha anche studiato orchestrazione e composizione con Conrad Pope, orchestratore di John Williams, Howard Shore, Alexandre Desplat, Alan Silvestri.

Affianca l’attività di compositore a quella di educatore insegnando in corsi universitari e alla Scuola Nazionale di Cinema (Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia) di Roma. È uno dei membri fondatori dell’ACMF www.acmf.it (Associazione Compositori di Musica per Film) della quale Ennio Morricone è stato il presidente.

Dal 2010  ha ricevuto un totale di 9 nomination per la migliore colonna sonora (categorie lungometraggi, documentari, promozione, miglior canzone, miglior cortometraggio) al Jerry Goldsmith International Film Music Award. È stato nominato due volte agli Hollywood Music in Media Awards.

Nel 2013 e nel 2020 ha vinto il Global Music Award per la colonna sonora del film horror “Hyde’s Secret Nightmare” e per il suo album solista “KuartetS”

Nel 2014 ha vinto il ColonneSonore Award per la colonna sonora del film d’animazione “Rocks in My Pockets”.

“My Love Affair with Marriage” is a 2022 animated musical comedy-drama film for adults with autobiographical elements. Written and directed by Signe Baumane, it is her second feature film following “Rocks in My Pockets” (2014). The film tells the story of a woman’s quest for happiness and her place in life as she searches for a marriage with someone she truly loves.

Although the film is animated, it is actually a production for adults that delves into the life and pursuit of happiness of an ordinary woman throughout her life and the things that happen to her. The music, composed by Italian composer Kristian Sensini, known for his work in films such as “La Sorpresa” (2015), “L’esodo” (2017), and “The Frog in the Stone” (2020), provides a fitting musical accompaniment to the film. Sensini writes a score where the harp and cello serve as the main instruments to represent the sensitivity of the protagonist. This instrumentation is given to several of the themes that appear in the film, effectively becoming the internal voice of the main character.

Another element used by Sensini is modern and lively music, incorporating percussion, strings, and sometimes synthesizers, reminiscent of the style of Thomas Newman’s music. This adds liveliness to certain parts of the film without making it monotonous. The string phrasing, whether from the cello or the composer’s violin solos, reinforces the character’s melancholic moments and provides pauses in the overall score. We also hear some reflective and ambient music, with the composer giving more prominence to percussion and vocals.

However, undoubtedly one of the most striking aspects of this soundtrack is the songs introduced by the Italian composer to represent the different moods of the characters. We can hear anything from upbeat pop-style songs to more ethnic or tranquil melodies with female vocals accompanied by the cello and harp.

Overall, it is an outstanding work that reinforces and enhances everything expressed by the director in her visuals, making them even better.

SPANISH

My Love Affair with Marriage es una película de comedia dramática musical animada para adultos con tintes autobiográficos de 2022. Escrita y dirigida por Signe Baumane, su segundo largometraje después de Rocks in My Pockets (2014), el film nos cuenta las peripecias de una mujer que busca la felicidad y su sitio en la vida buscando un matrimonio con alguien a quien quiera de verdad.

       La película, aunque sea un producto de animación, en realidad es una producción para adultos, que ahonda en la vida y la búsqueda de la felicidad, de una mujer cualquiera, a lo largo de su vida y de las cosas que en esta le suceden.

       La música del italiano Kristian Sensini, conocido por sus trabajos en cintas como La Sorpresa (2015), L´esodo (2017) o The Frog in the Stone (2020), quien conocedor de que este tipo de trabajos necesitan de un buen acompañamiento musical, escribe una partitura donde el arpa y el chelo son los instrumentos principales para representar la sensibilidad de la protagonista, otorgando el autor esta instrumentación a varios de los temas que aparecen en el film, siendo, de alguna manera, la voz interna del personaje principal.

      Otro elemento utilizado por Sensini, son las músicas de estilo moderno y movidas, con uso de percusiones, cuerdas y a veces sintetizadores, muy al estilo de las músicas de Thomas Newman, para dar vivacidad a ciertos tramos de la cinta, cosa que logra, y no hace que el film se convierta en algo monótono.

       Los fraseados de cuerdas, ya sea el chelo, o los solos de violín que ofrece el compositor, vienen a refrendar los momentos melancólicos del personaje, así como dan pausa en el conjunto del score. También escuchamos algunas músicas de carácter reflexivo y ambiental, dando el autor más prestancia a la percusión y las voces.

      Pero sin duda, uno de los aspectos más llamativos de esta banda sonora, sean las canciones que el autor italiano introduce para representar los diferentes estados de animo de los personajes. Así, podemos escuchar desde canciones más movidas de estilo pop, hasta otras de estilo más étnico, o pausadas melodías con voz femenina y el chelo y el arpa de acompañamiento.

      Una obra destacada, que viene a refrendar y dar más constancia a todo lo expuesto por la directora en sus imágenes, haciendo de ellas mucho mejores.

https://www.colonnesonore.net/recensioni/cinema/9554-my-love-affair-with-marriage.html

Translation

In 2014, the label MovieScore Media released the OST of “Rock in My Pockets” (read our review), composed by our own Kristian Sensini for the animated film by New York writer, artist, and director of Latvian origin, Signe Baumane. The film won 7 prestigious awards and received 6 nominations at renowned festivals around the world. The original music was nominated for the Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMA) and the Jerry Goldsmith Awards, and it also won the readers’ choice award for Best Foreign Score in our magazine in 2014. Last year, Baumane and Sensini collaborated once again on another adult-themed animated film titled “My Love Affair With Marriage,” with the score produced by MovieScore Media once again. The film is in the running for an Oscar in the Best Animated Film category and has already won 14 awards and received 21 nominations worldwide, including a score nomination at the Latvian National Film Festival. The story, told with clever mastery and delicate satire, is almost like a Yiddish musical and drama in the style of “Yentl.” It revolves around a spirited young woman named Zelma, who is determined to conform to the pressures of the Sirens of Mythology in order to be loved. But the more she conforms, the more her body resists. It’s a plot of internal female rebellion outlined with the visionary irony and irreverence, brutality and biting wit that are characteristic of the author. The animated drawings have an old-fashioned style, dreamily Felliniesque, with surreal dynamics reminiscent of Monty Python and Roland Topor (the cult film “Fantastic Planet” from 1973 directed by René Laloux). The music, composed by Sensini from the Marche region, is served in a highly engaging and intelligent manner, spanning almost 48 minutes of score, including tribal passages, Klezmer melodies, 60s and 70s Off-Broadway-style songs, and ethereal leitmotifs. Let’s go track by track (almost): “Opening Title Music” begins with a church organ and elegiac female vocalizations (Trio Limonāde), which take on the form of a Christmas carol with a light melody. “Enter Zelma” has a tribal sound with deep Tibetan male vocal effects taking the lead, along with didgeridoo and various other ethnic instrumental interventions in the background, emphasizing something wild and unconventional about the protagonist. It is accompanied by a lively airy theme that tries to find its way through all the percussive and brutal noise. “Soul Mate” is a Clannad-style song, poetically gentle, with harp and cello providing the backdrop for the enchanting voice of Trio Limonāde. “Zelma’s Goodbye” is a short funeral march for strings and brushes. “First Maris Fantasy” is the instrumental base for the song “Soul Mate”. “Elita’s Song” is a new frivolous and irreverent pop song, very 70s, reminiscent of Burt Bacharach and Marvin Hamlisch, performed by the aforementioned trio, along with Dagmara Dominczyk (Zelma’s voice) and Erica Schroeder (Elita’s voice) dialoguing in the film. “Neural Connections” brings us back to tribalism, much like “Enter Zelma”: ethnic percussive acts that are nothing other than the leitmotif of the protagonist, highlighting her internal rebellions against a community that cannot understand her, feeling oppressed. “Second Maris Fantasy” resonates ethereally with the harp in the foreground. “Love Fantasy” has an abstractly elegiac aspect, albeit brief. On the other hand, “Self Control” with the Jew’s harp and mixed tribal percussion sounds mysterious. “Mother’s Song,” performed by the trio along with counterpoint dialogues by Dagmara Dominczyk and Florencia Lozano (Zelma’s mother’s voice), is a beat-jazz song in the style of “Yentl,” with a musical flavor reminiscent of Bob Fosse. It’s like rock in “Sex Appeal,” reminiscent of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. “Zelma’s Bones” pumps out a cardiac sensation of tangled broken bones, followed by “Poberty,” which becomes synthetically and percussively mysterious and suspenseful. There’s dancing Klezmer music in “Jonas’ Fantasy.” Funky groove and 70s rockabilly in the song “Virginity” by Trio Limonāde. “Sergei’s Fairy Tale,” performed by a solo gypsy violin, sounds melancholic and reminiscent at the beginning, then ventures into Yiddish musical territory reminiscent of “Fiddler on the Roof.” Hindu belly dance rhythms are present in “Cortisol” and “Dissolution of Self,” but they are more meditative. “Zelma’s Room,”composed of harp and strings, has a dreamy and delicate atmosphere. “Last Maris Fantasy” is a wistful and introspective piece for piano and strings. “Climbing the Walls” is a tense and dissonant track, reflecting the internal struggle of the protagonist. “Zelma’s Apotheosis” has a triumphant and uplifting quality, with soaring strings and choir. Overall, Kristian Sensini’s score for “Rock in My Pockets” is a diverse and evocative work that captures the essence of the film’s themes and characters. The music spans various genres and styles, from tribal and ethnic influences to Yiddish musical elements and 70s pop-rock flavors. Sensini’s compositions effectively enhance the storytelling and emotional depth of the film, providing a captivating musical backdrop to the animated visuals.

https://www.colonnesonore.net/recensioni/cinema/9554-my-love-affair-with-marriage.html

Scritto da Massimo Privitera.

My Love Affair With Marriage (2023)
MovieScore Media
48 brani – Durata: 47’15”

Nel 2014 l’etichetta MovieScore Media mise alle stampe la OST di Rock in My Pockets (leggi nostra recensione) composta dal nostro Kristian Sensini per il film animato ‘adulto’ della scrittrice, disegnatrice e regista newyorkese ma di origine lèttone Signe Baumane, che si aggiudicò in rinomati Festival di tutto il mondo ben 7 vittorie e 6 nomination; la musica originale ottenne la candidatura agli Hollywood Music In Media Awards (HMMA) e ai Jerry Goldsmith Awards, nonché il premio dei lettori della nostra rivista come miglior partitura straniera del 2014. Lo scorso anno la Baumane e Sensini tornano a collaborare insieme per un altro film d’animazione dalle tematiche adulte dal titolo My Love Affair With Marriage, con lo score prodotto da MovieScore Media ancora una volta. Una pellicola in corsa agli Oscar nella categoria miglior film d’animazione che ha già conseguito 14 vittorie e 21 nomination in giro per il globo, tra cui la candidatura allo score al Latvian National Film Festival.
La storia narrata, sempre con arguta maestria e delicato dileggio, quasi sorta di musical e dramma yiddish alla Yentl, ruota intorno ad una giovane donna scattante, Zelma, determinata a conformarsi alle pressioni del canto delle Sirene della Mitologia per essere amata, ma più si conforma, più il suo corpo resiste. Una trama di ribellione interiore femminile tratteggiata con quella visionarietà ironica e dissacratoria, brutale e mordente, brillante e vibrante tipica della sua autrice, con un disegno animato vecchio stampo nei tratti, oniricamente felliniano e dalle dinamiche surreali alla Monty Phyton e alla Roland Topor (quello del cult Il pianeta selvaggio del 1973 diretto da René Laloux), che viene servita musicalmente in maniera assai partecipativa e intelligente dal marchigiano Sensini in quasi 48’ di partitura tra pagine tribali, melodie klezmer, canzoni anni ’60 e ‘70 simil Off Broadway e leitmotiv eterei.
Andiamo per ordine (quasi) track by track: “Opening Title Music” si apre con un organo chiesastico e vocalizzi femminei elegiaci (Trio Limonāde) che assumono forme da carola natalizia per una melodia leggera. “Enter Zelma” suona tribale con effetti vocali maschili tibetani cavernosi a primeggiare e un didgeridoo e vari altri interventi strumentali etnici sullo sfondo a sottolineare qualcosa di selvaggio e anticonvenzionale nella figura della protagonista, difatti commentata da un temino aeriforme vivace che cerca di farsi strada tra tutto il frastuono percussivo e brutale d’insieme. “Soul Mate” è una canzone in stile Clannad poeticamente soave, con quell’arpa e violoncello in controcanto a fare da cornice alla voce incantatoria del Trio Limonāde. “Zelma’s Goodbye” è una breve marcetta funerea per archi e spazzole. “First Maris Fantasy” è la base solo strumentale della song “Soul Mate”. “Elita’s Song” è una nuova frivola e irridente canzone pop molto anni Settanta tra Burt Bacharach e Marvin Hamlisch con performance del suddetto trio, e in aggiunta Dagmara Dominczyk (voce di Zelma) ed Erica Schroeder (voce di Elita) dialoganti nel film.
Con “Neural Connections” si ritorna dalle parti del tribalismo come per “Enter Zelma”: atti percussivi etnici che altro non sono che il leitmotiv della protagonista a calcarne le ribellioni interne verso una comunità che non riesce a capire, sentendosi oppressa. “Second Maris Fantasy” risuona etereo con arpa in primo piano. “Love Fantasy” marca l’aspetto elegiaco astratto pur nella sua brevità, invece “Self Control” con marranzano e percussioni tribali mescolate suona misterico. “Mother’s Song”, con performance del trio più dialoghi in contraltare di Dagmara Dominczyk e Florencia Lozano (voce della madre di Zelma), è una canzone beat-jazz alla Yentl, dal sapore musical alla Bob Fosse. Rock alla Rocky Horror Picture Show nel dinamico “Sex Appeal”. “Zelma’s Bones” pompa cardiacamente una sensazione di ossa rotte che si aggrovigliano, insieme al successivo “Poberty” che diviene sinteticamente e percussivamente misterioso e sospensivo.
Musica klezmer danzante in “Jonas’ Fantasy”. Funky Groove rockabilly anni Settanta nella canzone “Virginity” del Trio Limonāde. “Sergei’s Fairy Tale” per violino zigano solista suona mesto e rimembrante all’inizio per poi andare verso zone sonore yiddish alla Violinista sul tetto. Ritmi da danza del ventre indù in “Cortisol” come anche in “Dissolution of Self”, ma più meditativi. “Zelma’s Room”, per archi tenuamente svolazzanti, fa prendere un respiro alla partitura, tutta composta da tracce più o meno brevi nella durata. “Yes Yes Yes” altra canzone del fantastico trio femminile, di stampo farsesco beat generation. “Neurotransmitters” velocemente tribale, mentre “Natural Plan” altra nuova canzone spirituale alla Andrew Lloyd Webber per Jesus Christ Superstar con voce di Cameron Monaghan che doppia Sergei.
“Oxytocin Part 1 – 2” sono due pezzi tribali ascetici. La sequenza susseguente di tre canzoni del trio, ovvero “First Shame”, “Beads” e “Marriage is Forever”, sono tre interventi da coro greco in stile pop anni ’70 molto cordiali, frivoli e spumeggianti al contempo. “Alone” con la voce dialogante di Cameron Monaghan, controbattuta dal trio, è ficcante, viceversa lo strumentale “Bo’s Fairy Tale” risulta essere sospensivamente luminoso e avvolgente. Jazz ritmico indù nel frenetico “Bo’s Hormones”. Rock con schiocco di dita alla Rocky Horror Picture Show nell’aggressiva e simpatica song “Weak”. Un violino solista zigzagante alla Uccellacci e uccellini morriconiano in “A Gallery in Denmark”. Inseguente il pezzo “Microbiomes”. Pastorale e celtico “Falling in Love”. “Dopamine” rimbomba cavernosamente misterioso nella sua tribalità sostenuta. Country folk ballabile in “Miracles” per il sempre più sfolgorante Trio Limonāde.
“Happy House” canta giocosamente pop anni ’60 alla Elvis Presley con voci di Matthew Modine (doppiatore di Bo) e di Dagmara Dominczyk. Ascetico “After the Wedding”; celestiale con reminiscenze pop anni ’60 alla The Supremes in “Parasite” e “Baby” in stile “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” di Marvin Gaye. “Back To Latvia” per viola solista riecheggia drammaturgicamente doloroso. E arrivando alla canzone conclusiva dopo alcune tracce tribali di puro commento e la nenia sorridente “New Harmony” con voce di Zelma e ultima gradevole performance del Trio Limonāde, ecco la splendida, accattivante e amabile “Lion/My Love Affair With Marriage”, eseguita intensamente dalla cantante, cantautrice, attrice e autrice americana Storm Large, che risuona subito nelle orecchie come tormentone pop moderno senza abbandonarci più, la quale si meriterebbe una nomination agli Oscar nella categoria miglior canzone. Vero coup de théâtre sonoro di una colonna musicale molto interessante, ben costruita dentro e fuori il film e assai sovrabbondante ad ogni ascolto ripetuto.

TALKING TO KRISTIAN SENSINI ABOUT THE SCORE FOR, MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH MARRIAGE.

A huge thank you to Big Gold Belt Media for the fantastic interview about “My Love Affair With Marriage” (Directed by Signe Baumane)

Your insightful questions about the film’s score and songs made the conversation truly engaging.

Check out the interview and dive into the musical journey of the movie:

p.s. I did not breathe sulfur hexafluoride

https://biggoldbelt.com/video/kristian-sensini-interview-my-love-affair-with-marriage/

https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/fsmonline/story.cfm?maID=8901

My Love Affair With Music

Kristian Sensini rejoins Signe Baumane for the animated feature, My Love Affair With Marriage.

By Chris Hadley

Social conformity versus individual pride. Devotion to marriage versus commitment to personal desires. The brain’s logical compartment (the frontal lobe) versus its emotional (the amygdala). The philosophical contrasts and arguments between women and men on practically all issues. The above conflicts and other such adult topics are not things that would typically be associated with an animated musical, but award-winning Latvian director Signe Baumane’s My Love Affair With Marriage—her second feature-length animated drama after 2014’s mental illness study Rocks in My Pockets—is an exception to the rule. Marriage co-stars Dagmara Dominczyk as the voice of Zelma, a shy adolescent who’s too frequently seen by her classmates as an anti-social weirdo, but whose building obsession with love makes her fantasize about a handsome yet elusive male student. As her feelings about him go from infatuation to disinterest, and as her mental and physical concerns evolve beside her maturity, Zelma’s views of both “the perfect man” and the men who might play that role also develop. With a watchful trio of siren singers musically commenting on and sometimes criticizing her romantic decisions, and with scientific explanations of her brain’s framework by the informative voice of Biology (Michele Pawk), Zelma begins a search for companionship that occurs as the clash between her body’s needs and her life’s aspirations heightens. As a teen, Zelma’s “love affair with marriage” first brings her into a regrettable one-night stand with older artist Jonas (Stephen Lang). In adulthood, her relationship with the charming yet intellectually intimidating Sergei (Cameron Monaghan) is a marriage that gradually leads to disagreements, distrust and tragically, abuse. Her last hope for a lasting connection appears to be Bo (Matthew Modine), a caring and love-struck Swede who is more welcoming of Zelma than her previous spouse, but less open about his sexual interests. As Zelma figures out that the storybook fantasies that she imagines her love affairs to be are never as grand as those of Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty, she sees that the freedom of being herself is more fulfilling than being what others aim for her to be. Joining Baumane again after their collaboration on Rocks in My Pockets is composer Kristian Sensini, who lends a similar, heartfelt touch to the new score. That said, he saw his duties on Marriage doubled, as he both created the instrumental and song components of the musical. Underscore-wise, Sensini delivers a set of percussive yet unobtrusive patterns for co-animator Yajun Shi’s anatomic illustrations of the body and brain in the film’s Biology-narrated primers—beats that also connect to the chronicled growths of Zelma, Sergei and Bo in the second part of the film. For Zelma’s full-circle turn from shy, daydreaming youngster to romantically choosy and eventually skeptical grown-up, Sensini imbues places a variety of traditional European-style instrumentation and melodics into her material. Teaming with Baumane on Marriage’s mostly short but consistently memorable songs that stylistically vary from folk to funk, and from to rock to gospel, Sensini worked with a talented collection of performers that includes Dominczyk, the Latvian female triumvirate Trio Limonade (as the observant Mythology Sirens), Erica Schroeder (as Zelma’s know-it-all peer/social butterfly Elita), and Florencia Lozano (as Zelma’s matter-of-fact, traditionalist mother). Concluding the film is the anthemic “Lion,” sung by Storm Large (co-vocalist of the band Pink Martini) and co-written by Baumane and Sensini, a number that expresses Marriage’s themes of personal independence and perseverance, and how Zelma finds both in her story.   Chris Hadley: My Love Affair With Marriage is your second film with director Signe Baumane. How do you approach working together? Kristian Sensini: Well, let’s say that the work of Signe speaks for itself. I was inspired by the way she tells stories. What I look for in a movie is good storytelling. Signe has a perfect way of balancing drama and humor. She also has a degree in philosophy. So I think the inner way for her to see life is to balance humor and drama. Maybe life itself works this way, balancing dark humor, drama and happiness. I was able to balance that kind of feeling by following the narrative of the director, and we started to work together because we both see life alternate between drama and humor. CH: As seen in your first film for Baumane, Rocks in My Pockets, her unique visual style is evident through the designs of her characters and their locations, and that’s something that continues in Marriage. How did that, as well as Yajun Shi’s animation for the human body sequences, dictate the arrangements in your score for the film, as well as the overall approach that you took? KS: Well, the scientific part was the toughest part of the score. I remember I started to work on some demos and I think for the first biology cue I did nine or 10 different versions for Signe, and she wasn’t satisfied with any of them, because there was too much melody and too many instruments. Play Me Version 11: Signe Baumane, director. Then she said, “Let’s try something primitive, something ancient, something very old, something that has to do with the mythology, something ancestral.” We thought the most ancestral instrument that we could use was percussion. The first instrument of man was the voice, of course, but the second instrument, which was the first invented and crafted by man, was percussion. So she said, “This is not a documentary. We don’t need the documentary music for the scientific part.” “Biology” is one of the main characters of the movie. Her music is not something that has to do with science, but it has to do with the primitive essence of the human being. So we tried to work with the percussion, and that worked very well.

CH: As you did in your score for Rocks, you also had to work with some extensive narration sequences, like the visually vivid explanations of how Zelma’s brain influences her physical and emotional reactions to every interaction she experiences. How did you deal with this element of the score?

KS: That was a really hard task. My main idea in Rocks and this movie was to think of the voiceover from the main character that narrates the story as the main melody. The idea was to not use instruments that are going to interfere with the voice in terms of tone and frequencies. So you don’t have big melodies on cellos or woodwinds or even piano. I created a counterpoint with instruments and the voice. In Rocks, the voiceover was the voice of the director herself, so I had to be even more respectful of the narration in Marriage because it was the voice not just of the director but of the protagonist of the story, and it’s of course a true story.

CH: Given that you had to work with a large voice cast rather than just the narrator like on Rocks, how did you find yourself working around the various voices?

KS: Well, since this is an animated movie, I had all the files of the narration in the early stages of the production. I was able to work with those recordings and to try to find not just the perfect home for those voices in terms of frequencies, as I said before, but also in terms of rhythm. I’ve been inspired a lot by the rhythm of the voices, because every single person has a different way of talking and has a different rhythm. So starting from the voice, I was able to create a special rhythmic aspect.

CH: My Love Affair With Marriage’s lead character, Zelma, is emotionally influenced by her expectations of men according to the Russian culture she grew up in, which we see play out in the third section of the film, and the way other people perceive her from childhood to adulthood. How did those facets of Zelma’s character influence not just the theme you wrote for her, but also the songs that you co-wrote with Signe?

KS: As in the previous movie, I was inspired by a lot of music from East Europe. You can hear in the score a lot of influence in the harmonies, in the rhythm, and also in the instruments. I used more general European instruments, but with an East European intent and sound that wasn’t folk. So I tried to give this kind of background to Zelma’s story and Zelma’s character without having the music be too ethnic.

Regarding the songs, I tried very different genres. With this film also being the story of her life, the songs follow a little bit of a historical arc. We decided that we could define the songs as gypsy folk, and you can hear some influence of gypsy music, of rhythm and blues, but for example, in the first song, “Soul Mate,” you can feel as if it is something that comes from an ancient mythology story. It’s primitive, with the sound of the harp that evokes something of the magic of the folk histories. Then in another other song, when the character Zelma starts to grow, we follow different eras, but without being too specific in the years, because this is a universal story. So I try to have the songs be a little bit gypsy, a little bit folk, with the influence of contemporary musicals of the time [the 1970s and ’80s]. You can feel something like the rhythm and blues of that era in those songs, but without it being too specific.

CH: Were there any difficulties that you ran into during the song side of this equation, or did your compositional skills and experience writing for animated movies help make the process easier?

KS: Well, this officially is the first time I wrote a song for a movie, but as part of my career as a composer, I’ve had experience in writing songs. It’s easy enough for me to write melodies; I hope that they are catchy melodies. When you say the words “musical” and “animation,” the first thing the audience has in mind is Disney movies, because every one of us grew up with Disney musicals, but this film is something different. Also, the process of writing the song started from the script, because the songs were in the script. Signe wrote the lyrics, and they were part of the script. I had to adapt my music and my melodies to something that was already written. If the process of writing the song was a regular collaboration, then in some cases we should have started from the melody, and then worked on the lyrics, then worked on the melody, and exchanged files back and forth, but that was not the approach here.

If you listen to the songs in the movie, they are really strange and short. Usually, they don’t respect the [standard] time lengths of pop music or a musical. They are more like poetry than song. I basically needed to create music for these little pieces of poetry. It’s a little different to write songs for a musical. I think this process worked perfectly because the kind of songs we wrote, in the end, are different from anything else. They have a different structure. They didn’t have a verse, a chorus and so on. Again, it’s like contemporary poetry, and that was a really exciting idea. This was true for every song except the last one [“Lion,” the end credits song performed by Storm Large], because for that one we had a different approach. Signe said of that one, “I want a pop song—a real pop song that sums up the narrative arc of the movie.” In this case, Signe sent me the lyrics and said, “If you need a pop song, we need to work on the structure.” So I said, “Let’s put an intro, then a first verse, a second verse, a chorus, another verse, and then a special verse.” It’s different from the other, shorter songs, and I think it works very well to end the movie.

CH: In what ways did you and Signe convey the emotional aspects of the characters, especially Zelma, through the songs and their vocal performances?

KS: The main vocals of the songs are usually sung by the mythological sirens, and they represent sort of a Greek chorus. They represent the subconscious of Zelma, or they can be seen as the imposition of society in little voices that a woman has in her mind when she decides to listen to what society asks her and tells her to do, what society thinks of the average woman, and so on. So they are working as a counterpoint with the Zelma character. She’s a very independent woman but with a lot of doubt. “Am I doing the right thing? Should I behave in another way as society expects me to as a woman?” They are judgmental. When I was writing the song I thought, “I hope that people will experience the full movie, because if people listen to the song by itself on Spotify, they might think the people who wrote this song are misogynists because it has lyrics like, ‘You need to save your marriage even if the marriage doesn’t work.’” But if you experience the song in the movie, you know that this makes perfect sense because this is not the voice of the director; this is the voice of the society.

CH: How did you and Signe determine what genres and styles would best fit the songs you wrote for Marriage, and how do they contrast with the instrumental score?

KS: This is a very smart question, because having written the songs first, I had the opportunity to choose the key of every single song and the key of every single score part. In thinking about the songs, I had to think in terms of the key of the song, and that the song was to be sung in three-part harmony because most of the songs are sung by these three sirens. So I had to arrange the vocals in a style like that of the old singers in the ’50s, who sang harmonies in three parts. I had to keep in mind the extension of three female voices that were singing together, but when I wrote the score, I had every single song placed all over the movie, and I chose to find different keys to land on the songs more sweetly. From a musical and technical point of view, if the key of the song was C major, for example, I needed to be sure that the score of the previous cue was in G major, to have a dominant tonal effect from the score to the song. It’s like a symphony, where every single piece of score, every cue, and every subsequent song are one movement.

As usual, Signe gave me a lot of freedom with song styles. In my mind the songs were to have a palette of rhythm and blues and gypsy folk styles. Maybe I was subconsciously influenced by something like the Greek muses in Hercules, the Disney animated movie. Or maybe I had this idea of The Supremes singing some song, but the deeper you get into the movie, the more the style changes from song to song. One song is more like Amy Winehouse, one song is more gospel, and another one is more like ’80s rock. There is a song that sounds like Patti Smith. The style changed a lot for some of the songs because I also wanted the audience to be entertained and surprised by each one.

CH: Regarding Zelma’s marriages to Sergei and Bo, did you create any themes for those two characters, or did their music tie into Zelma’s?

KS: It is more on a emotional and tonal level. In the first movie I did with Signe, I created a lot of little leitmotifs for every single character, but in this case, it was my idea to respect the single scene and the single cue in the overall storytelling. I think the main character is actually Biology, as opposed to Zelma, and more than Bo and Sergei, for example. So the real leitmotif here is the Biology one. The extensive use of the percussion differs from character to character. When you have the Biology cues that talk about Bo’s biology, you can hear castanets. These small instruments characterize not Bo but his biology. The tablas characterize Zelma’s biology. So there are, more than motifs, these little rhythmic ideas that follow the biology of a single character.

CH: Given that in the film we see Zelma grow from a child to a mature woman, and considering all the problems that she has in her relationships, how does the score stay emotionally and tonally consistent?

KS: There is an arc in the use of the percussion. It’s not representative of the growth of the character; it’s representative of the emotional state of the character in various periods of her life. In some cues, you can listen to more percussion. In some other cues, you can feel the rage, but it’s not something that changes with age because you also have it when she’s a little girl and she fights. You have big percussion there to give the impression of Zelma’s blood pumping. In some other cues, the score is sweeter because the state of her mind is more at peace with her understanding of the world and with her understanding of herself. This is reflected in the very last cue before the end title song, where you can feel that she understands that she needs to live her life and be the best version of herself for herself.

So the arc is not about age. Zelma’s music is more about the different states of mind in different parts of her life. You can say that you listen to a specific kind of music when you are young, and then another kind of music when you are old because you are growing old. The music you listen to is more tied to the different parts of the day. In some parts of the day, you listen to rock music, while in other parts of the day you listen to jazz. My approach to scoring Zelma was more like this.

CH: In an overall sense, the score is consistent as it relates to Zelma’s journey and the theme of the movie: finding your way in life despite every challenge you face, and despite whatever difficulties romance throws in your way.

KS: Yeah. That’s reflected in parts of the score that are sweeter, and when we have the classical background music in the film. Those little cues where she’s at peace with herself are very romantic. They’re very sweet and they stand out among the other cues because the rest of the score is so varied.

—FSMO

https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/fsmonline/main.cfm?issueID=230

My Love Affair With Marriage *** 1/2

KRISTIAN SENSINI Digital 50 tracks – 48:17 Writer-Director Signe Baumane’s latest animated film, My Love Affair With Marriage, follows a young girl named Zelma who must come to grips with her own mythologized understanding of what it means to be female. The film played at Tribeca last year and then made the rounds on the festival circuit before landing a limited release in the States in October. Kristian Sensini (Rocks in My Pocket, La Sorpresa) is on hand once again to craft the score for his collaborator Baumane.A slow moving major scale kicks off the album in the “Main Titles,” with a vocalise sliding in amidst a lighter texture as it concludes. A more emotional track follows in the form of “Enter Zelma,” where a warm string line is set against percussive rhythms that add a sense of energy. The percussive idea acts as an important propulsive component throughout the album, while the cello also serves as a sort of musical voice for this character, evolving across the score.A light harp and flute idea provides a contrasting flavor in “Love Fantasy,” while some of the score’s quirkier blends of instrumentation and styles can be found in “Self Control,” “Puberty” and “Nerve Growth Factor.” As the album progresses, the pervasive percussive segments seem to take on an almost world music quality. Furthering the score’s diversity, “Zelma Jonas Fantasy” features a nice waltz variant.Sensini’s score for My Love Affair With Marriage features strong thematic ideas that mostly alternate with the percussion-driven passages. Also prominent on the album are the film’s eclectic songs “Soul Mate”; the jazzy “Elita’s Song,” “Marriage Is Forever,” “Alone” and plenty more—including several that feature dialogue and play out like brief musical theater excerpts. Many of these songs are texturally quirky in their own right, and are interspersed throughout the playlist in such a way that they feel integrated with the underscore.In the end, My Love Affair With Marriage features some of Kristian Sensini’s finest lyrical writing to date, as well as some more experimental stylings. The songs also stretch the music into various popular music idioms, diversifying the listening experience. —Steven A. Kennedy

Thank you to Conrado Xalabarder for the nice interview

https://www.mundobso.com/agoras/el-control-del-descontrol