Between the Sand and the Sky: Interview

Interview with Ori Vidislavski
Score Composer for Between the Sand and the Sky Movie

Israeli composer Ori Vidislavski has enjoyed local and national success in his homeland for the past 20 years. So what inspired this big fish to jump into the global film composition market and have to prove himself all over again? 

We caught up with Vidislavski in the midst of working on a film in Ireland and scoring the supernatural western Between the Sand and the Sky (starring Muse Watson) for the American/Australia production company Shorris Film to discuss his recent immersion in self globalisation.

What made you decide you wanted to be a musician?  And how old were you when you knew music was your future?

I wanted to be a musician since my youth age but [then my dream] was to play in a rock band etc…to be a serious musician I decided only after my army service [at the] age of 21 that I went to the Tel-Aviv academy for music and started to learn composition. Only then I decided after 3 years of learning to be a musician.

Was there anyone or anything that inspired you to become a composer?  How do those early influences manifest in your music today?

The most important experience that inspired me to become a composer was the fact that I feel as "a whole" while I'm writing.  I feel a part of the universe.  

This was a big discovery for me.  Today I try to share as much as I can this energy and give it back to the world.  

In 1993 and 1997 you won "Composer of the Year" from two different Israeli theatrical organizations.  What do you think makes your work stand out?

From my first years as a composer I wrote [for the] theatre.  I found the theatre, or to be more precise, the stage my second home.  My music was always part of the theatrical event in that sense that you can never [discern] between the two.

You mention on your website (www.orividislavski.com) that you are equally comfortable writing for film, theater, and dance.  What are the unique challenges that each forum poses?  Do you have a favorite medium to write for? 

All the three poses the same skill.  To be a dramatic composer [one must] connect to the plot or to the story to be the main character. To think as part of the world you are inside and [at] the same time be unique.

Do you consider your body of work as a whole to have a signature Vidislavski style?  If so, what is it that makes your music unique?

I think yes, I have my own style but I really can't tell what makes it unique beside the fact that when I'm composing I know immediately if what I'm writing belongs to my world.

Do you do all of your own arranging as well?  Do you have any favorite orchestration of instruments?

I do all my arranging alone.  I can freak-out when I'm getting to a new "sound" - something I’ve never heard except in my head

What instruments do you play?

Piano .

You have achieved an impressive degree of success in Israel.  What made you want to branch outside of Israel into the global arena? 

The energy that I let out to the world in the last 20 years is too big to stay only in Israel. I believe that we must keep an equal status between what we give and what we get from the world.

Music has sometimes been called the 'universal language', however each culture has its own musical dialects.  Do you have to think about music differently to reach a mass global audience? 

Yes, definitely yes! I think I can write in a global language and that my "style" can reach a mass global audience. But there are a lot of aspects in my art that remain unrevealed for the masses.

Your music definitely seems to transcend simply "incidental" music to have a more active role in the storytelling medium.  What role does the score play (no pun intended) in a theatrical or film setting? 

It's part of the artistic experience.  The audience gets many layers simultaneously - a lot of information.  The music is part of what we want them to experience.  It's an enormous tool in the hand of the director in his way to reveal his dream.  If you are making mistakes in the score, in my opinion, you simply killed your film!  I can't stand films with poor and insensitive scores. 

Currently you are scoring the supernatural western Between the Sand and the Sky.  How do you approach the western genre musically to make it accessible to modern audiences? 

I rely on the "historical" memory of what traditional western music is, and from that point I can fly to a much more modern writing based on a modern sound. 

With Sand & Sky, how do you musically bring out the different elements of the story (comedy/drama/suspense/etc.)?

I believe that the key to scoring Between the Sand and the Sky is to take all the elements of the drama and to treat them very seriously, not to judge them, not to build a comic atmosphere around them (it's a very funny story and it's make me laugh all the time) simply to compose the main essence of the plot.

You have made several albums as well.  Are these available to the public? 

Yes I made several.  I will make link in my website (www.orividislavski.com) for the people who want to buy the albums.

What advice do you have for someone just trying to break into the highly competitive world of music?

Be patient.  Be real.  And above all: believe in your music. 

Bewteen the Sand and the Sky will be released in 2008.