We wanted to create a score that immerses us into the film’s landscape. Collaborating closely with the directors, we were judicious in the amount and placement of the music; the score had to cohabit with the natural sound and not dominate the visuals.

Holding our hand subconsciously through the film, we didn’t want a cliched ‘ethnic, Indian’ score but instead chose to use unusual organic acoustic instrumentation such as the Hang Drum, wooden flutes and Bazantaar, a hybrid instrument that has the sympathetic drone strings of a sitar but is bowed like a double bass. Having a meditative sonorous, evocative quality it suited itself to the meditative nature of the film.

Some cues have a sense of wonderment , beauty and curiosity to reflect Mansi’s passion for her research; what she feels when observing and studying Moths.

We also experience the passage of time in a peaceful way, feeling the playfulness of the caterpillar, where we look at details that may seem insignificant, but are in fact mesmerising in their detail.

I used soft brushes of Tibetan bowls to mimic the moths fluttering and hitting the moth screen. The sine wave of the singing bowls also reflect nature’s natural sonic resonance.

Scoring the film was cathartic. It took many months to compose because in order for the audience to experience the magical of nature, the placement and choice of every notes and cue was crucial and took time in the same way you experience the whole film.

Sundance 2024 Composer Spotlight

"Music by Nainita Desai, sparingly used, absorbs one in the tranquil setting."

- POV Magazine

"Mansi is not an actor, but she’s given the role of one, both in her narrations, as well as in some of these interpersonal conversations….with the help of Nainita Desai’s heavy, wistful score, they become, in their own way, melodic."

- Variety

"Nocturnes is intimate and expansive – breathtakingly vivid in its sensory, aural design"

- Hindustan Times

"Srinivasan and Dutta score many scenes to ambient noise or tonal bells and ancient instruments. The university laboratory, they suggest, is its own kind of temple, and science like religion a process of ritual repetition in search of revelation."

- Slant Magazine

"This Immersive Documentary About the Secret Lives of Moths Demands Your Full Attention"

- Indiewire

"Nocturnes stands out as one of the most reverent treatments of scientific process in recent memory: uplifting in its understated optimism that understanding of the natural world driven by technology might accompany understanding of the divine, as well as humbling in its warning against anthropocentric arrogance."

- Slant Magazine

"Nocturnes is as much a process film as it is a sensory experience."

- The Hollywood Reporter