Cemento
(Digital)

Label Plaza Mayor Company Ltd presents the soundtrack from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Cemento written, directed, edited and produced by Senén Fernández and composed, arranged, conducted and performed by José Sánchez-Sanz .

Label Plaza Mayor Company Ltd presents the soundtrack from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Cemento written, directed, edited and produced by Senén Fernández and composed, arranged, conducted and performed by José Sánchez-Sanz .

The soundtrack is available to download on all digital music services

Cemento is a journey through the city of Madrid, away from the usual spaces that are usually seen in the media. A visual and musical exercise that runs through the city to talk about urbanism and nature, youth and old age, day and night.

Mixed in 5.1 at Estudios Multidesign Mixing Engineer Jorge Sánchez Estradé
Cinematography R. Peña Executive production by Norberto Ramos del Val

Director Statement :

At the beginning of this project, it was clear that the music wouldn’t be just an important part, it would be half of the film, more than that sometimes. Obviously, the key influence was 'Koyaanisqatsi', not only on an aesthetic and narrative level, but also musically.
So, the soundtrack composed by Phillip Glass was one of the references, but not the only one.
When I start talking with José Sánchez-Sanz about musical concepts, many names came up, from Glass to Nick Cave, including Ray Lynch and Kraftwerk among others. But José was convinced that the mirror in which to look ourselves was the Cinematic Orchestra, especially their score composed for 'The Man with the Camera.
' Since then, my job consisted in transmitting a series of ideas present in the film; the dehumanization of the city, urbanism, the rejection of the old and the antique, car as a recurring image, the feeling of being trapped.
As a result, José composed a series of pieces that were fitted into the narrative, not only giving it rhythm, also giving it meaning.
Transmit these ideas just with images wouldn’t have been possible, if they were not accompanied by Cemento, the original music composed by José Sánchez Sanz.

Composer statement :

A film in which your music is going to be the protagonist for just over an hour is quite a challenge for anyone who compose music for films.
There’re not very much possibilities to face challenges like this and from the first time I saw the film, all those other films that have used this way of expression crossed my mind.

From the legendary Koyaaniskatsi by Godfrey Reggio with music by Philip Glass, to the contemporary music composed for the City Symphonies that were filmed in the 1920s. Both things are found in Cemento, a contemporary City Symphony about Madrid, lost in an absurd build and destroy orgy.

In Cemento I have tried to express the clamor of a city that little by little is consumed among bricks and concrete in a display of artificiality as a spectacle city thinked for tourists.

A city that has become increasingly hostile to the people who live in it, but despite this, they find some way to enjoy what little is left. Cemento is a hymn to the transformation of a city that little by little destroys its landscape, the same thing that happens in the 80s with the destruction of nature made by capitalism that Reggio denounced on his film.

This is the reason why the minimalist sounds of Glass have been of great inspiration for this project, although its basis has more to do with the nu jazz that the band Cinematic Orchestra composed for that City Symphony that was The Man with the Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov.

A jazz band formed with drums, keyboards and acoustic bass with a string quartet and a saxophone quartet lead a sound palette that is completed with electronic sounds that represent that cement that is under the feet of anybody that live in Madrid who wakes up day after day in a city that always wanted to be London or New York, but that it’ll be Madrid forever.


( - Label Plaza Mayor Company Ltd - )

More info at: The album on Itunes