Beyond the commotion of the cities, there is a

stunning natural life. Unbeknownst to anyone,

millions of plants and animals put on a show

filled with splendour, grace, ferocity, candour, and

humour. Untamed Romania is a 90-minute cinematic

journey into this amazing world, encompassing

the Carpathian Mountains, the Danube Delta and

Transylvania as its major areas of interest. The

images are breathtaking, the scientific information

about the flora and the fauna is well-balanced, and

the music has been specially composed for the

film. These are the factors that explain the unusual

success of the production. Shot in some of the

most biodiverse places in Europe, the documentary

reveals a side of the continent that we thought we

knew everything about.

The music is an original creation by British composer

Nainita Desai. Nainita is based in London and has

written extensively for broadcasters such as the BBC,

ITV, Channel 4, Netflix, and National Geographic. In

2016, she was named a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit.

Once the score for Untamed Romania was written,

the compositions were recorded in two phases,

whereby the majority of the score was performed by

BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Cardiff, and the

more intimate cues recorded in London, at Angel

Studios.

A B O U T T H E F I L M

At its heart, the story-telling through the music

was of paramount importance. There are universal

themes of hunting, conflict, power, parenthood,

young animals growing, playing and learning. The

animals had strong characters that I wanted to

bring out musically and the visuals were rich and

inspiring.

Working with director Tom Barton-Humphreys

and supervising producer Alex Păun was an

incredibly fruitful experience, where I was

allowed a great deal of creative freedom.

I wanted to take the viewer on an emotional

journey throughout the film, with varied musical

colour and textures. I developed a lyrical thematic

score using melody, something not so common in

contemporary film & TV soundtracks.

The music had to evoke the fairy tale feel of

Transylvania with its magical forests which can

be heard in Legend of the Fire Salamander.

Each season had its own individual theme. Spring

is light and playful, summer is hot and languid,

autumn is quite melancholic and beautiful, while

winter is cold and inhospitable.

The bears also had their own theme that took

various twists and turns — from the playful and

curious to that of power and aggression which

you can hear in Bears vs Wolves.

Alongside the orchestral cues, I incorporated

sound design and synths to represent some

of the ‘under-worldly’ caves in the Carpathian

Mountains. They provided textures and sounds

for moods and scenes that the pure orchestra

couldn’t reach. These electronic elements also

injected character and colours into cues such

as Mayfly Season (a sequence where millions

of mayflies take to the sky) — a nod to 80’s

synthwave and analog synths that has an almost

Blade Runner-esque quality to it.

You can hear the lynx’s own theme in two forms

— one with a playful light arrangement for two

lynx cubs and one at the end of the film when a

single female lynx is struggling to survive in the

harsh winter forest.

It was important for me to utilise the whole

orchestra, with interesting arrangements for

woodwinds and brass alongside a string section.

You can also hear the interplay between silence,

sound effects and impact of brass in Wild Boar, which covers the wolves and boar hunting scene.

There are a few musical influences that come

through, such as hints of a Gershwin-esque motif

when a bear cub falls out of the tree in Bear Antics, or the moments of humorous light jazz in

Catch the Mayfly.

My own favourite cue is A Chrysalis Awakens. I

experimented with my own vocals and the cue

came together in a very organic way as the

butterfly scene in the film unfolded.

C O M P O S E R S TAT E M E N T

Recording in Cardiff with BBC National

Orchestra of Wales was a real highlight. Having

73 musicians playing together as a band had

a very live organic feel to it. I selected them

because they all know each other’s nuances

and play together regularly, giving a cohesive

liveliness to the recording.

During our London session at Angel Studios,

we recorded some of the more intimate cues

with leading London string players including

Richard Harwood, principal cellist of the Royal

Philharmonic Orchestra. He also performed all

the cello solos.

Nainita DesaiComposer

01

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UNTAMED ROMANIA

SLEEPING GIANTS 1

A CHRYSALIS AWAKENS

WILD BOARS

SPRINGTIME IN CARPATHIA

WOLVES IN CARPATHIA

LEGEND OF THE FIRE SALAMANDER

LYNX CUBS

THE DANUBE

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CHICKS IN DANGER

FLOWERS IN BLOOM

BEAR MISCHIEF

CURIOUS BEAR CUBS

GRACEFUL PELICANS

CATCH THE MAYFLY

ANCIENT HISTRIA

LAZY SUMMER DAYS

MAYFLY SEASON

THE CARPATHIANS

GOLDEN EAGLE HUNTING GROUND

THE APUSENI MOUNTAINS

EAGLE CHICKS

BEAR ANTICS

MAGNIFICENT BEAST

LUSH MEADOWS

STRANGE CATERPILLARS

STORK DELIVERY

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APPLES AND BEARS

AUTUMN APPROACHES

PIATRA CRAIULUI RIDGE

BEARS VS WOLVES

THE CHAMOIS

THE LYNX

SLEEPING GIANTS 2

THIS GLORIOUS LAND

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Nainita Desai is a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit and

has written numerous bespoke scores for multi-

award winning projects.

Amongst other accolades, Nainita is a NaturVision

Best Film Score winner and a Gopo Best Film

Score nominee, both in 2019, for Untamed Romania.

Recent highlights include documentary For Sama (which has to date won top prizes at prestigious

festivals such as Cannes and SXSW), feature

film The Reason I Jump, interactive film/ video

game Telling Lies for Annapurna Interactive, and

the prestigious BBC royal wedding broadcast of

Meghan and Harry (for which Nainita wrote the

title theme).

C O M P O S E R B I O G R A P H Y

Born in London, Nainita’s eclectic musical

upbringing as a child led her to studying the

sitar, piano, guitar, tabla, singing and violin. She

obtained a degree in Maths, before attending the

National Film & Television School to specialise in

sound design.

Writing in a wide range of musical genres, Nainita

moves seamlessly from working with orchestras

(including the London Contemporary Orchestra

and BBC National Orchestra of Wales) to ethnic

influenced music, utilising her collection of

custom-made instruments from around the world.

She incorporates electronics, sound design and

song-writing into her music, which has led to

collaborations with artists such as singer Eivør

Pálsdóttir and writing documentary musicals for

the BBC, including the acclaimed City of Dreams – The Musical.

Nainita’s musical foundations are rooted in

documentary, where she has forged an enviable

reputation scoring hundreds of landmark

productions. She has worked with leading film

makers on projects that have garnered Oscar,

BAFTA, Emmy, Cannes awards and nominations.

As a sound designer, Nainita’s career began

on feature films for directors such as Bernardo

Bertolucci (Little Buddha), Werner Herzog

(Lessons of Darkness), Anthony Hopkins (August) and Iain Softley (Backbeat and cult modern

classic Hackers).

Her passion for music technology led to her

working in music engineering for many top

artists, including Tori Amos, Peter Gabriel, Billy

Cobham, Daniel Lanois, Jane Siberry, Nigel

Kennedy, Sinéad O’Connor, and Ravi Shankar.

C R E D I T S

All titles published by Manners McDade Music Publishing

Copyright for all titles is owned by Auchan Romania

Music composed by

Nainita Desai

Orchestrator/ conductor

Alastair King

Mix engineer

Steve Parr

Score preparation

Dave Foster

Composer assistant and additional programming

Javier Blanco

Orchestral engineers

Huw Thomas (Hoddinott Hall)

Mat Bartram (Angel Studios)

Chris Parker – assistant (Angel Studios)

Album mastering

Peter Beckmann (Technology Works)

Orchestra

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Nick Whiting (Associate Leader)

Orchestral contracting

Michael Garvey (BBC National

Orchestra of Wales)

Hilary Skewes (London session)

Additional musicians (Angel Studios)

Jonathan Morton (session leader),

Richard Harwood (cello soloist),

Warren Zielinski, Max Baillie,

Beatrix Lovejoy, Thomas Gould,

Simon Blendis, Marije Johnston,

Martyn Jackson, Michelle Fleming,

Meghan Cassidy, Ann Beilby,

Helene Clement, Brian O’Kane,

Pierre Doumenge, Leon Bosch

Recorded at

BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff, Wales

Angel Studios, London, UK

Photos: © Max Milligan (2018)

Executive producers for Silva Screen Records

Reynold D’Silva

David Stoner

Design & layout

Stuart Ford

Thanks to

Tom Barton-Humphreys, Alex Păun,

Allison Bean, Andrew Wilson,

Dan Schwalm, Malcolm Laws

Motion picture produced by Auchan Romania, Off the Fence and The European Nature Trust.

Ⓟ & © 2019 Auchan Romania SA under exclusive licence to Silva Screen Records Ltd. Unauthorised duplication / copying / download is a violation of applicable law.

Made in the E.U. SILCD1600