The Next Best Picture Podcast Interviews With "Sirāt" Sound Designer Laia Casanovas & Composer Kanding Ray
Jan 16, 2026
In this engaging discussion, Laia Casanovas and Kanding Ray share their creative insights on the film "Sirāt." Laia, a skilled sound designer, reveals how she crafted the desert's sonic identity and gave each vehicle a unique personality with intricate textures. Kanding Ray, an electronic composer, dives into his innovative scoring techniques, blending field recordings with club sounds. They both emphasize collaboration, with Laia describing how they integrated rave music elements for authenticity, creating a rich auditory experience that mirrors the film's emotional journey.
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Sound As Emotional Journey
- Laia Casanovas designed the film to take listeners on an emotional arc by shifting sound from realistic to surreal as the story progresses.
- She used dynamics, tactile textures, and volume changes to make the desert feel like a character and affect viewers physically.
Use Varied Field Recordings
- Mix diverse wind and atmosphere recordings to build a textured, non-literal desert soundscape.
- Use unexpected sources (Icelandic volcanic winds, Spanish recordings) to match emotional tone rather than geographic accuracy.
Vehicles Have Sonic Personalities
- Vehicles received distinct sonic identities to reflect character and narrative role in the film.
- Casanovas layered metals, glass, and plastics to make trucks sound beastly and vans sound intimate and fragile.
