The main idea behind the soundtrack for The Wailing was to create a musical extension of the cries heard by the film's protagonists. The music serves as a thread connecting the different timelines and locations jumps. It does not seek the individuality of Andrea, Camila and Marie but creates links in each of their stories.

One of the first starting points that we had with Pedro was Freud's essay The Uncanny ("Das Unheimliche", 1919), where the philosopher suggests that the most unsettling things are often found in the familiar and the strange aspects of everyday life. Inspired by that idea, along with the director’s cinematic style—which is more aligned with Costumbrismo than traditional horror—, we decided to use the most universal and ordinary instrument: the human voice.

It was also essential for the music to feel simple and intimate, as if it were composed from a close-up perspective, mirroring the sound of crying. Therefore, I created discreet tunes with voices so soft as if they were whispered in the ear.

Moreover, reflecting on the insidious nature of the film's evil, I did not want to masculinise the violence in a direct way, but rather address themes of oppression from a position of vulnerability and fragility. We considered using harmonious music to create a protective glow but recognized the need for an underlying sense of danger. So we created the tension by simply multiplying these voices and repeating them until they seem to trap the protagonists in an emotional tunnel.

The result is a dynamic composition that plays with multiple linear ideas, arranged in flexible sections that can be changed in tone and mixed at various speeds. This interplay is enriched by a series of lyrical canons, accompanied by textures and clusters that evoke ASMR and techniques like growling.

The soundtrack has been performed by a choir of six singers created and directed by Aurora Bauzà and Pere Jou. We wanted a specialized group to capture the unique range required for the score while conveying the sense of brotherhood present in the film. Since Aurora and Pere come from a performing arts background, their experience with physicality also helped reflect the tactile and visual character of the music.

Due to time constraints and the complexity of certain arrangements, we decided to record everything separately. Our first step was to identify common elements in each piece and develop a framework to cover all scenarios.

We created a texture map and a set of flexible guidelines to allow for more improvisational recordings. These interpretations were combined afterwards according to the framework for each cue.

Later, following up Alvin Lucier’s experiments, it felt natural pushing up the concept of repetitions and echoes to its paroxysm. We played these recordings on a loop in a room until we achieved a distorted version of the chants. The result, with a lot of pressure on the low frequencies, served as specific gestures to support the presence, while maintaining a completely organic material, both conceptually and sonically.

Finally, in the scenes filmed with miniDV, the only space where the presence is revealed, we aimed to create an unreal sensation by another manipulation of the recorded voices. We stretched and passed the sound through magnetic tapes multiple times until we achieved a blurred version of the original material.