Nikolaï Clavier, the violist in the Arthema String Quartet, just got nominated to one of the most prestigious film music awards in the Netherlands! The New Talent Award of Buma Music in Motion!
For the soundtrack of "Blauwe Maandag", directed by Gregory Samson. Blauwe Maandag is a film by Gregory Samson, about a man who loses his son in a car accident and blames himself for the incident. It is a dark drama about loss, guilt and the burden of shame.
Nikolai Clavier: "Because it is about an inescapable destiny, I chose to score the whole film in the key of C-minor, using the dark musical language of Nordic Noir. It revolves around a heavy leitmotif which represents the overpowering weight of the protagonist’s emotions. This leitmotif gets repeated throughout the film, always in the same key, to show that he is trapped in his emotions and cannot get out of that loop.
The instrumentation consists of vintage synths, string orchestra, brass and a solo-strings recorded by the Arthema String Quartet. "
"Thanks to an insane idea from the director, Gregory, we managed to book the chamber hall of Concertgebouw Amsterdam for our string quartet recordings. Two weeks before recording he had the suggestion that we should email the Concertgebouw, since they were closed due to the lockdown, and ask if we could record there for free. It took them 10 days to reply, and I had given up on the idea that we would ever be able to record there, but one day before our scheduled recording they wrote us back with a green light. That’s when I learnt the meaning of the Dutch expression: 'Nee heb je, ja kan je krijgen.'"
The sound department, with Zita Leemans and Zeno Hehenkamp, did a formidable job in the mixing stage. I think this is the movie where I’ve submitted the most stems! The opening cue has 23 separate stems and each was placed into the 7.1 space very deliberately. Some synth sounds were rotating around the hall at times, and the solo string players, which were recorded with 12 different microphones, were placed around the virtual room – creating an immersive sound. As a result, the cinema experience is quite exceptional.
Music can be heard on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2k2XLfX3feNnBe8tOjmUPp?si=Tm455Yo8TUO3gRjFGWGEdg