It’s Sounding Like Dau!

I was a recent sound design graduate when I joined this vast project. Even though I was there for 7-8 months, and worked only on one of the series, the impact of what I learned and experienced, has been apparent in my work. It shaped my style and understanding of what a soundtrack could give a film. Almost four years on, after every project with a similar emotional tone, while I go through my work before delivery, I feel that there is similarities. It is clear that I have embraced the style. So I decided to write this article to help myself understand how this happened. How is there a bit of Dau in everything I do!?

In summer 2016, I contacted sound designer Alex Joseph. It was a few months after my graduation from the National Film and Television School, and I was very keen to get more film sound design experience under my belt. And Alex’s profile seemed to perfectly match the type of projects I wanted to get involved with. He had mostly done psychological thrillers and dark dramas.

He said he is on a Russian project that had been in post production for a long time. And yes, it was dark and psychological! It was called Dau. The whole project was based on the life of the Russian Noble Prize winning scientist Lev Landau. 700 hours of rushes shot on 35 mm film.

I read a few articles online and agreed to meet Alex in Green Park, opposite Dau HQ at 100 Piccadilly London.

The first time I set foot in the Dau building, was a truly unique experience. A dimly lit reception with a wide marble staircase. My eyes were just getting used to the low lights that I noticed few mannequins dressed in soviet era outfits. It was like stepping into a different time. Soon I realised they also made sounds. They coughed and sighed! Later I was told those vocalisations were snippets from the recordings of the actual actors on set.

I went up in the lift, and then I was interviewed by Maks head of sound, Alex Joseph himself, Stefan Smith sound designer, and Rob Walker re-recording mixer. They offered me a two week trial period to see if I wanted to join the team. Also for them to see if I was suitable for the project. This was mainly to see if I could connect with the material or not.

For a few days I watched some of the films they had made so far. They were locked picture cuts with finished mixes, but I was told still subject to change and revision any minute. I didn’t know any of the spaces and characters in the films. But gradually it started to make sense. Some of the characters reappeared in the other films.

Majority of the material had been shot on the same location; a huge institute with the same rooms and departments. Apparently it had been built for the shoot, and later demolished after the 3 year period of the filming. Built in Kharkiv in Northern Ukraine, this 12000 m2 institute, was the largest film set in Europe. Some actors lived there, 24 hours a day.

I was so fascinated by the material and the scale of the project, that I wanted to know more and get involved. I also had a chance to have a look and listen to Stefan Smith’s work. He was the lead sound designer and only worked on his Nuendo system. It was nothing like I had heard or seen before. Or perhaps the only resemblance at the time, was the unique tonal sound design, which I had closely studied on the Danish series The Killing.

In the end I was offered to assist Stefan on the 10 part series he was just starting on. To which I said a big yes! This meant I had to learn Nuendo. Being a Pro Tools operator for a long time, it took me a couple of weeks to feel comfortable to use the new software, but eventually I became comfortable with it. After a while I decided to rotate the screen and use it vertically to have a better view of all the tracks.

Stefan’s work was a mixture of room tones, backgrounds and musical tones. He mainly used Buchla synthesizer to create the tonal elements. There was a huge volume of details in the tracklay. Sound design sessions were done on Nuendo and the dialogue and everything else on Pro tools. Alex Joseph worked on Pro tools and mainly did hard fx design. I’ll elaborate on my learning from him, later in this article. In the end, all Pro Tools work was consolidated in to one session, and was mixed alongside Stefan’s Nuendo sessions. In other words, the final mixes were done by Stefan on Nuendo, and Rob Walker on Pro Tools; the two systems were locked together.

In the next 7-8 months the majority of my work with Stefan was on a 10 part series called “Degeneration”. I had the luxury of using and reusing all past material for backgrounds and atmospheres. While he was mainly making new tones on his synths. We then put them together for reviews and internal screenings. I also laid room tones for different spaces. We had a combination of fixed room tones for each space, but also needed to lay new material to respond to the scene emotionally.

The lesson for me was to avoid putting in realistic room tones and backgrounds just for the sake of it. Every small detail, even in the backgrounds needed to help the intention of the scene, and respond to its emotional content. It needed to help the story as a whole, as well as the relationship between the characters inhabiting it.

Backgrounds usually create life, in and around the space. They’re there to compensate for the intentionally created isolation and stillness during the shoot. Later, when those sounds are added, their texture, quality, proximity and frequency can be a very powerful tool of storytelling. And Stefan’s tracklay exactly did that.

There is no conventional score in neither of the films or series associated with Dau. All the sonic storytelling has been done with sound. At his School of Sound 2019 talk, Stefan explained how he took on the non-conventional composer role across all projects associated with Dau. He explained how for almost a year, he was asked to make audio compositions and respond to words like “Soviet”, “love” and “play”, before even starting to work on the actual material.

He then had found a way of working; he created musical tones that weaved into the fabric of the film. Not sitting on top like a conventional composition. He created tonal elements that merged with the other sounds in the soundtrack. They were so subtle that they became part of the space. They were electronic sounds but they were barely noticeable. You could barely hear them but they created a feeling and a mood.

During my time at Dau, I also worked with sound designer Alex Jospeh, who had initially introduced me to the project. Before meeting him in person, I admired his body of work on psychological thrillers and horror films. And my admiration grew deeper as a result of working with him. Having come from a background of horror films and big budget blockbusters like Bond and Harry Potter movies, his work on Dau, was almost the opposite of what Stefan was doing. He was punctuating and creating the big moments. As much as Stefan’s work needed to be hidden away, his, had to be elaborate and big, to be effective.

Since then, I have had the opportunity of working with him on other projects. With him, there is always a layer of hyperreal. For example, there’s a crash, and there is a shadow of a crash that sits on top, to make the moment hyperreal. There is drama in every small detail in his work. A door opens and you instantly think, oh! Who’s going to come through the door now! Alex is a master of creating suspense with sound. His work on the BAFTA winning feature debut Under the shadow, is a prime example of pure sonic storytelling. There was only one music cue in that film, and only accompanied the end credits. Alex’s sound design, comfortably and masterfully carried the rest of the film.

I learnt a huge amount form both Stefan and Alex, and all the members of the sound team on this project. But the highlight came from the project as a whole. It was the unique approach to filmmaking stemmed from the director’s vision that stuck with me; something that I didn’t like at all at the time! I remember there was always an element of uncertainty in the air in the Dau building. As soon as you felt comfortable that you were done with a film, or an episode of a series, you were challenged to explore further. In other words nothing felt certain and most importantly nothing was ever complete. It was the fluidity of the project that changed the people who could endure this ever-ongoing mode of creation.

Stefan highlighted this notion in his 2019 School of Sound talk. “On Dau the director didn’t want to hear about what we had done in the past. There is comfort and certainty which makes it safe. You feel that there is a way to do things. He wanted the project to change us. So we could in return give something to the project. You are asked to do the impossible, and you have do it and fail. Approach the process like you’ve never done it before! The ability to suspend belief and see where you end up. Brining the unconscious forward like the inner world. Because there lies the stuff that is interesting and can make the film interesting. Uncertainty and unpredictability and the possibility of failure which is a much more interesting way of working. The process is more interesting and failure is a big part of it.”

Now when I look back at my time at Dau, I feel that it changed my perception of filmmaking. Interesting creation only happens when you challenge your previous assumptions of the process and the end product. True magic only happens when your usual toolbox has been taken away from you. And this doesn’t necessarily have to be done by the director. As long as you are conscious of it yourself and you do it occasionally, it could have the same effect.

Past Projects