Films · Restore Point
A world where murder can be reversed still has to feel like it costs something.
That was the unifying emotion I wanted the score to carry from beginning to end.
The film moves fast between contrasting places, emotions and people, and the score had to hold all of it together without becoming one flat colour. It is built from synthesizers, sampled metal instruments, a live orchestra and abstract acoustic sources closer to industrial noise than to music — the machines carry the world, the vocals & orchestra carry the people in it. In the few places written to reach the audience directly, voices rise above the instruments and the score stops hiding. Getting all of it to live next to the sound design instead of fighting it was the hardest and most rewarding part of the work.
The instrumental palette
01MetalThe metal instruments were not instruments at all. They are eight sculptures by the Bulgarian sculptor Martian Tabakov, sampled and turned into a playable set — objects that were never built to make music, giving the score a metallic voice that exists nowhere else.
02MachinesThe electronic layer draws on the instruments that shaped the sound of science fiction: the Yamaha CS-80, the Moog modular, the ARP 2600 and the Synclavier — most of them today only a handful of working units or faithful software recreations, which is how they entered this score. The CS-80 and the ARP belong to the sound of the future as it was imagined decades ago; in a film about reversing death, that memory of an older future is part of the meaning.
03VoicesA children’s choir and a solo female voice. Used sparingly, they give the score its most human and most fragile colour — together with the orchestra, they carry the people in the film.
04OrchestraRecorded in the largest music studio at Czech Television, Kavčí Hory in Prague, with players from several local ensembles: a full string section, alto and bass flute carrying the darkest melodic lines, and contrabassoon for the lowest rhythmic accents and sub-bass weight.
In the studio · Kavčí Hory, Prague
Teaser & trailer
Two pieces written exclusively for this film.
Press
“Veers from elegant heart-breaking cello to pulsing sub bass electro.”Starburst Magazine · UK ↗︎
“Jan Sleska's score is an integral part of the film's immersive experience.”Fears Magazine · US ↗︎
“A dark, murmuring score adds to the sombre mood.”MovieSteve · UK ↗︎
“A strong electronic musical score.”Every Movie Has a Lesson · US ↗︎
“A fantastic soundtrack.”Totalfilm.cz · CZ ↗︎
“Composer Jan Šléška did his job to perfection.”NerdFix.cz · CZ ↗︎
Recognition
Czech LionNominee · 2023 · Best music
Credits
DirectorRobert HlozProducerJan Kallista · Film Kolektiv PragueMusicJan ŠléškaReleaseAutumn 2023 · Netflix, VOD