No Más Cataratas: Un Desafío Global
José Manuel Cancela and William Hoshal
" is a mostly soothing and quite touching overall score "Written by Joep de Bruijn - Review of the download only release
No Más Cataratas: Un Desafío Global is a Spanish 2025 documentary directed by Elias Lalaux. It tells the humanitarian story of the Elena Barraquer Foundation pursuing a dream to help people across the world through cataract surgery.
As the documentary was filmed in Argentina, Morocco, Mozambique, Mauritania, and El Salvador, the music by Spanish-American José Manuel Cancela and American William Hoshal reflects this. They use a lot of 'local' instruments, but at the same time rely on programming, including retro synths and small-time orchestral components, to craft the hopeful message.
In the pieces non-reliant on rhythmic solo instruments and programming, several cues of the Hispanic segments employ longer, emotional, and melodic guitar solos. Yet, for some reason, developments in the other regions never utilize an appropriate instrument in comparable solo display. The highlights of the score are a fine mixture of soft ambience supporting a wonderful piano melody, as heard in Procedimiento en Mauritania, and the imperative human voice represented through a female vocal in Reflexiones and Titulos de cierre, despite being commonplace.
There are issues with the prosaic programming, but still it is a mostly soothing and quite touching overall score that fields in between underscoring overall developments of the foundation and (viable) emotional transitions of what it means to be able to see ever so clearly again.
Tracklist
1. Titulos de apertura 3:11
2. Empacando 0:29
3. Mozambique 4:13
4. Argentina 2:50
5. Procedimiento en Buenos Aires 7:41
6. Marruecos 1:54
7. Procedimiento en Marruecos 4:50
8. Viajando 2:47
9. Mauritania 3:50
10. Procedimiento en Mauritania 5:11
11. El Salvador 3:11
12. Reflexiones 5:40
13. Titulos de cierre 2:43
Total duration: 48:30
09-11-2025)
As the documentary was filmed in Argentina, Morocco, Mozambique, Mauritania, and El Salvador, the music by Spanish-American José Manuel Cancela and American William Hoshal reflects this. They use a lot of 'local' instruments, but at the same time rely on programming, including retro synths and small-time orchestral components, to craft the hopeful message.
In the pieces non-reliant on rhythmic solo instruments and programming, several cues of the Hispanic segments employ longer, emotional, and melodic guitar solos. Yet, for some reason, developments in the other regions never utilize an appropriate instrument in comparable solo display. The highlights of the score are a fine mixture of soft ambience supporting a wonderful piano melody, as heard in Procedimiento en Mauritania, and the imperative human voice represented through a female vocal in Reflexiones and Titulos de cierre, despite being commonplace.
There are issues with the prosaic programming, but still it is a mostly soothing and quite touching overall score that fields in between underscoring overall developments of the foundation and (viable) emotional transitions of what it means to be able to see ever so clearly again.
Tracklist
1. Titulos de apertura 3:11
2. Empacando 0:29
3. Mozambique 4:13
4. Argentina 2:50
5. Procedimiento en Buenos Aires 7:41
6. Marruecos 1:54
7. Procedimiento en Marruecos 4:50
8. Viajando 2:47
9. Mauritania 3:50
10. Procedimiento en Mauritania 5:11
11. El Salvador 3:11
12. Reflexiones 5:40
13. Titulos de cierre 2:43
Total duration: 48:30
09-11-2025)