Pablo Cervantes is known for being José Luis Garci’s last period composer, but, since his cinematographic music debut in 2000 with You’re the one until Holmes & Watson: Madrid Days in 2012, he has developed his own career, diversifying between fiction TV series, documentaries and, obviously, other cinematographic productions.
As the films shows, the catastrophe has already happened in the past. Given the subject’s seriousness, Cervantes chooses a tense, suspenseful soundtrack, linking one statement to the next, and highlighted by aerial shots taken by drones, reason why some of the music tracks are so short. That’s not the case in the initial one, more than six minutes long, where Cervantes uses minimalist forms, creating a disturbing atmosphere based on electronic sounds. That way, he intertwines the prologue, crafted through a summary of successive repetitions, the film’s main titles and the narrator’s explanation on the tectonic plates’ movements and their unpredictable, yet evident, activity.
The composer creates the soundtrack from these criteria, as the different bodies of evidence are presented. The composer adds a Mediterranean touch to his work, obvious despite its shortness, in Generation Tsunami, the album’s second track, simulating through samplers the Arabian lute and the guitar. Cape Trafalgar and Victims are examples of the mix between the threatening, suggestive electronic sounds and the more organic ones created with the samplers. The synthetised percussion`s counterpoint in Streets of Cádiz and Walls of Cádiz shows the ominous reality that what happened then could happen again any time, something crystal clear in Very few escaped. The tense rhythm goes in crescendo as narrator and interviewees show the possible consequences of disregarding the voices of alert. They emphasise prevention (It’s not about shocking, it’s about educating, How to act), warning of the situation people could face due to A poor management of natural events. Arroyo, with Cervantes’ complicity, ends the film with a stunning, hair-raising simulation of the disaster, which would be less effective with good (in)formation. Great educative music.
1. Narrador 01/ Narrador 02/ Gráficas placas terrestres
2. Gráfico generación tsunami
3. Fin Emilio Carreño/ Narrador 03
4. Fin prospección
5. Fin teoría conchas apiladas
6. Narrador 04/ Gráfico período retorno
7. Gráfico fallas Golfo Cádiz/Narrador 05
8. Narrador 05/Baelo Claudia
9. Imágenes Guadina/Descripcion tsunami
10. Cabo Trafalgar
11. Calles de Cádiz
12. Murallas Cádiz
13. Muy pocos se salvaron
14. Narrador 07/Consecuencias en Huelva/Licuefaccion
15. Refineria/Narrador 08
16. Victimas
17. Narrador 09
18. No es escandalizar es educar
19. Tiempo entre tsunami y seísmo
20. Como actuar
21. Narrador 10/Mapa detención tsunami/ Narrador 11/Mareografos/Fin antes impacte
22. Narrador 12/Bollas Dart
23. Narrador 13/Simulacion costas/Narrador 14
24. Narrador 15
25. Narrador 16/Señalizacion
26. Narrador 17
27. Transicion
28. Mala gestión de los eventos natuarales/Ya está viniendo/Narrador 18
29. Cartelas fin/Rodillo fina
