“To be a composer, you have to be a psychologist.“In her work, Nainita Desai is primarily interested in the connection that individuals have with the world around them, how their psyche is shaped, why people are who they are and do what they do.”I'm not very good at writing, but I tell stories much better through my music“, she confides. Born in London, Desai studied mathematics then music at the prestigious National Film and Television School, quickly acquiring a solid portfolio between cinema and television. It appears as a child of the world, as she would be described in France, with musical inspirations drawn from the India of her ancestors, but also from South America, the Middle East, and of course the Western classical register. She accumulates orders for Netflix (American Murder) and war documentaries (For Sana) with a website definitely very busy in recent years.
Advertisement
The world is small…
Despite a real appetite for the world of video games, Nainita Desai did not seem to have to tackle the complete setting of an interactive work to music any time soon. But winning the BAFTA Breakthough, a title recognizing emerging British artists, put her on the industry radar. “Sam Barlow privately messaged me on Twitter, out of nowhere, asking if I wanted to compose the soundtrack for Telling Lies.“A very natural bridge between his different professional fields given the particular format of the narrative game, broken down into FMV vignettes like a dislocated film whose fragments should be recomposed. And if the metaphor furiously evokes Immortality, Sam Barlow's next game, it is not is no coincidence of my writing, since Nainita Desai was also responsible for accompanying the tribulations of the deceased actress Marissa Marcel.
However, the creative process turns out to be completely different between the seventh and tenth art. “In cinema, you arrive, you already have the images and you basically have to emphasize them. Whereas in video games, you can have concept art or gameplay fragments to inspire you, but more often than not, I write my scores without relying on the visual elements. I find this very liberating. It's a more creative process.“As evidenced by the conception of the music ofImmortality. Nainita Desai received only 280 pages of script and lengthy oral descriptions from Sam Barlow. Descriptions slowly unraveled through individual discussions, plunging the composer into the center of the creative process, making her inseparable from the finished work.
After a comma towards Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Nainita Desai took care of Tales of Kenzera: ZAUa Bantu-inspired metroidvania that left a good impression on us. Tales of Kenzera is the very first project from the multifaceted company Surgent Studios, also a production company. The team is spread across the four corners of the world but finds its roots in London, in the imagination – and working time – of actor Abubakar Salim. If he is the Father of Raised by Wolves and offers himself an appearance in the Napoleon by Ridley Scott, we mainly know Salim for having played Bayek in Assassin's Creed: Origins. Note that it's a small world as Abubakar Salim was also highlighted by BAFTA Breakthrough.
- Also read | Interview Tales of Kenzera: “A metroidvania is a good allegory of mourning”
Tales of Kenzera: ZAU displays heavy specifications for a female composer. An Afro-futuristic fable imbrizing a shamanic story in a science-fictional framework with a story on two levels, the metroidvania essentially tells the journey of Zau, a spiritual healer desperately trying to negotiate with the god of death to see his deceased father one last time . Abubakar Salim plans Tales of Kenzera as a cathartic game to exorcise one's own grief – many elements from his personal life, or stories from his late father, fueled the creative process. It was also about highlighting African culture in the video game industry after the maddening success of Black Panther At the movie theater. And this obviously happens through music, the beating heart of many spiritualities of the Cradle of Humanity.
Advertisement
…but it is teeming with inspiration
Hence the capital importance of Nainita Desai in this project. Abubakar Salim asked him to find “the sound of mourning“. An instruction that looks like a philosophy baccalaureate. Luckily, his own journey allowed him to capture “authenticity“researched and move forward from there.”My mother grew up in South Africa and my father in East Africa, Kenya. So I've already visited the continent several times, and I've studied its music.“Familiar with local cultures and their musical practices, Desai was able to inject this knowledge into the soundtrack of Tales of Kenzera. “Abubakar [Salim] told me that he wanted to bring out the three vertices of a conceptual triangle: epic Western orchestral themes, folk choirs and instrumentations, as well as Afro-futurism, represented by synthesizers and electronic additions.
Surgent Studios has mobilized major resources to accomplish its musical vision with orchestral recordings in Vienna and Abbey Road, but also collaborations with very cutting-edge artists, African authenticity requires. *”The soundtrack includes more mystical ambient tracks to stir emotion, but also incredibly complex rhythm tracks for boss fights. The orchestra had a hard time keeping up!” Indeed, African polyrhythms contrast with Western orchestral music which is often very rhythmic, not necessarily locked in, but well defined. Nainita Desai called on multi-instrumentalist Sidiki Dembélé to handle some percussion, including the djembe. The compositions also include tunes from the kora, a West African stringed instrument whose sound is reminiscent of the harp, as well as the Fulani flute, whose heady melodies also appear on the soundtrack of Black Panther. “None of these musicians know how to read Western notation. We often had to improvise: I sang them melodies to guide them and tell them what I wanted… It was very fun.“The different inspirations are linked by the solo cellist Elliott Bailey, which brings a touch of lyricism to the instrumental parts. A very interesting choice since it is often said, a musician's word, that the cello is the instrument closest to the human voice, making it ideal for associating English classicism with traditional African songs. The three major biomes of the adventure are respectively inspired by Ethiopia, Kenya and Yoruba traditions to vary the pleasures.
Nainita Desai has also collaborated with the sound designer Rob Brown to ensure the sound consistency of Tales of Kenzera. “My job was to convert Abubakar’s train of thought into tangible pieces. Rob was very supportive as he regularly gave me detailed briefs on each piece needed. We were also careful not to step on each other's toes: during mixing, I avoided sound frequencies that encroached on dialogue or sound effects to favor clarity. The whole sonic landscape is part of the storytelling for me, and finding the balance is essential. Dialogue is king.“This is a problem often little known to neophytes, and yet, perfectly logical. Superimposing different identical frequencies blurs the final result in our ear. Mixing is quite an art (like the victims of cinema mixing of Tenet will be able to testify to this).
A job of the future?
Despite this universal constraint, Tales of Kenzera remained a great breeding ground for Nainita Desai. “Composing for cinema or television is a very quick process, whereas video games take three to four years to compose. You have more room to experiment. And then, the audio teams are much more organized in video games, they know what they want and they know how to describe it. It's more confrontational in the cinema.“The central place of music in our interactive adventures, between the necessary backdrop and epic thrusts enhancing the adventure, particularly pleases the composer, with the possibility of hitting very hard, of imposing her touch once the other constraints have been satisfied “Game music must be very loud, very marked. Movies are designed to be watched only once, so their soundtracks are only heard once; but you'll hear the games theme music over and over again, which helps to get attached to it.“
If it is too early to consider the aftermathTales of Kenzera, one thing is sure, Nainita Desai will not leave the industry. “I think the future of entertainment will be at the convergence of linear and non-linear. […] Working with Sam [Barlow], I spent hours discussing a lot of elements, drawing inspiration from all cultural formats. I've met some of the smartest people I've ever worked with in gaming – brilliant people, capable of approaching the world around them holistically… Every game invites us to design new creative processes, whereas in cinema, it is more linear. Cinema is already more than 120 years old. Video games are only 40 years old, it is still a young art form. Its limits can still be pushed back.“And why not accomplish this on Sam Barlow's Project C and D, well?