In modern Hollywood, it seems like everyone wants to automate components of production as much as possible, or get it fast, but not get it made well. Unfortunately, it’s not just movies and TV that are treated like that, but also the artisans composing the music for those projects.

Meet composer David Bertok. He’s worked on award-winning feature films like Peace by Chocolate, Daughter of the Sun, and Botero.

We had the pleasure of sitting down with David to discuss his process as well as why the human element of live music is so beautiful.

Let’s dive in.

NFS: Congratulations on being nominated for the Hollywood Independent Music Awards! How does that feel?

David Bertok: It feels wonderful, exciting and surprising. I didn’t expect to be nominated at all, especially not with a more cerebral music piece like Fontana dell’Anima.

NFS: What was the inspiration behind your neo-classical album One?

Bertok: It was mainly two things: one, I received a grant from the German Performing Rights Organization (GEMA) to record an album of my neoclassical work. Two, for many years as a film composer, I have amassed a collection of pieces that I’ve always wanted to record but never found the right moment to do so. When these two occurrences aligned, I already had about half of the music composed and now had the freedom to be very creative with the other half.

NFS: Could you share the story behind the creation of the particularly challenging piece, “Fontana dell’Anima,” and the process of working with 21 masterful string players for its recording?

Bertok: Initially, I had this short fragment of a polyphonic (somewhat neo-baroque leaning) piece that was intended for a string quartet. When I started the selection process for my album ONE, I knew I wanted it to be on there. Now that I had a budget to record a sizable string orchestra, I decided to extend it and use even more voices and the so-called “divisi” approach to split each section into multiple voices.

The piece kept growing, and I felt like it could go on forever, so I made a conscious decision to end it on the dominant chord, leaving it feeling “unresolved.” When you play it in a loop, the ending leads right back into the beginning. It represents the constant renewal process for me—hence the title “Fountain of the Soul.”

Also, I want to give a shout-out to the string orchestra conducted by Vladimir Martinka in my place of birth, Bratislava, Slovakia. It’s a special place to record, and I love the sound of Studio two with the wooden walls. The Slovak Radio Hall where we recorded is a super cool building, even from the outside—an inverted pyramid.

NFS: What led you to emphasize tonal music and exclusively feature real instruments without any electronic elements or samples in this album?

Bertok: In film music, you end up using samples a lot, always at the mock-up stage, often as a hybrid end product of samples mixed with live instruments, and sometimes (but increasingly more rare) when replacing the samples altogether at the end. It’s always such an uplifting night-and-day moment when you have a real performer breathing or bowing life into your music.

I wanted to have that experience on every piece on this album. Besides, I think that especially today, with so much talk about AI and the question of what is human that the computer cannot do, one of the answers is—a live performance. All the detail and depth and, yes, imperfections of a fantastic player cannot be simulated.

NFS: What were some of the main challenges you faced in recording the album?

Bertok: I think my main challenge was when to say the album is finished, as I am so used to deadlines from the film music world. Here I was, my own harshest critic who had to find the moment to say, “This is it; it’s complete.”

NFS: Can you tell us about the creative process and decision-making involved in selecting the specific ensembles and musicians for each piece on the album?

“Loondance”: a wild mix of String Quartet, Harp, Horn, Oboe and Soprano. This was not an intellectual process but an intuitive one. I just enjoyed the blend of these instruments, and they sounded refreshing and were not overused to me.“Humoresque En Blue”: Two Clarinets, Six Strings (two Violins, two Violas, Cello, Bass) and Piano—this was another unusual but very satisfying blend for an upbeat, humorous piece.“Fontana dell’Anima”: As I mentioned previously, this grew from a string quartet to a full 21-piece string orchestra just because I could and because it created a more impactful sonic world.The piano trilogy “ENO – EON – NEO” was always meant to be for solo piano. There is purity and immaculateness about the piano, unlike any other instrument. I may be biased as a pianist. Also, since I usually play all my piano pieces myself, I was curious to hear what someone else’s musicianship would bring to it. I ended up hiring my piano teacher from high school and former mentor, Jonas Kvarnström, who is a wonderful and prolific pianist. He was the one encouraging me to pursue music back then, so it was a full-circle moment for me to have him perform and elevate my pieces.“June”: This started out as a piano solo piece, and I began adding layers of strings to make it more cinematic. I loved the lush sound the strings added to it and the soaring solo string moments they created.“Prayer”: This was intended as a Solo Piano and Solo Cello duet, and it worked wonderfully as a calming and reflective conclusion to the album. I had the luck of having the wonderful cellist Eva Brönner on it, and she performed with a transcending serenity.