That scene. The masks. The chanting. If you’ve seen Eyes Wide Shut, you remember it. Not the plot, not the dialogue. That music. It gets inside your head and stays there like a splinter.
Here’s what most people don’t know. The song is a Romanian Greek-Orthodox chant. Jocelyn Pook took it, remastered it for her 1997 album Deluge, and Kubrick heard it and knew immediately. He used it for the masked ball sequence, the most uncomfortable, most hypnotic scene in the entire film.
The trick? The vocal track is reversed. The original text is in Romanian, but you’ll never make out the words because they’re playing backwards. That’s what gives it that otherworldly, ritualistic feel. It sounds like a language you almost recognise but can’t quite place. Your brain keeps trying to decode it and failing. Kubrick knew exactly what he was doing.
The original piece was called “Backwards Priests,” a reference to the church turning a blind eye to abuse. Heavy subject, fitting title. The folk melody underneath is “Pe-al nostru steag e scris Unire,” “On our flag is written Unity.” A traditional Romanian song, adapted by the Kronos Quartet for Pook’s recording.
The Eyes Wide Shut soundtrack is worth owning for this piece alone. I first watched Eyes Wide Shut at about sixteen. Too young to understand half of it, old enough to feel that music in my bones. That chanting during the masked ball scene, it’s primal. Deep. The kind of sound that makes you check over your shoulder even though you’re sitting alone in your living room.
Not metal in the traditional sense. But if you think about what metal does at its best, creating atmosphere through tension, darkness, and refusal to comfort the listener, then Jocelyn Pook’s work belongs in the conversation.
Play it in the dark. With headphones. See what happens.
What the lyrics actually mean — the short answer
Language: Romanian. The vocal sample is from a Romanian Orthodox Christian liturgical chant.
Why it sounds wrong: the vocal track is reversed in the final mix. You hear the syllables backwards, which is why your brain keeps trying to decode something that almost feels like language but never resolves.
Why “Backwards Priests”: Pook chose the title to point at clergy who turn a blind eye to abuse within the institution. The reversal is the metaphor played literally.
The folk melody underneath: Pe-al nostru steag e scris Unire — a 19th-century Romanian patriotic song. The title translates as “On our flag is written Unity.” It was written by Andrei Bârseanu in 1880, set to music by Ciprian Porumbescu. The Kronos Quartet adapted it for Pook’s recording, giving the chant its underlying string melody.
Did Kubrick approve the use? Yes. He heard the original piece on Pook’s 1997 album Deluge (under the original title Migrations) and licensed it for Eyes Wide Shut, where it was renamed Masked Ball for the soundtrack release.
