Hello again. It’s been a while since my last update in 2018!

Silent Witness has been going strong up to Series 25 now.

I’ve scored a couple of fiction feature films since then too. Cathy Brady’s beautiful “Wildfire” set in Northern Ireland about the intense and troubled relationship between two sisters and the ongoing aftermath of “the Troubles”. Also Martha Tilston’s debut feature “The Tape” a film about a singer rediscovering her passions.

On the documentary side I’ve scored a feature length doc about the Euro currency called “The Euro Story” dir. Annalisa Piras and am just completing a true crime doc for ITN - more info to follow!

Collaborations on the string arranging and production side have continued with Maribou State, Lucy Rose, Aquilo, Hardkandy, Barry Can’t Swim, Chartreuse, Chris Ja and many more! I’ve enjoyed some fantastic live gigs including the Glastonbury Acoustic Stage (Lucy Rose) and the epic West Holts stage (Maribou State) on the same day.

I’ve also just finished an adorable animation about a woman who gives birth to a cat (dir.Lilian Fu). Release date very soon, watch this space!

Very excited to be writing the music for Silent Witness season 22 with Andy Price and Nick Walker. We’ve been writing away since May and will be finished in January 2019 when it will be broadcast. Gives me a nice opportunity to put my weird and wonky hat on mashing up lots of acoustic live instrument stuff with morbid electronica science noise gadgets. Silent Witness very much has a “sound” that has been great to learn and dive into the production styles and we’re respecting that sound whilst now pushing things forward! They are also great layered juicy plots to delve into the characters/subtext/dilemmas and of course….MURRDURR! (Best said like Taggart would).

For Outstanding Debut Feature film! So happy for everyone on the team!

…..for Best Outstanding Debut Feature Film. That’s nice

http://www.bafta.org/film/awards/ee-british-academy-film-awards-in-2018

Well this is a lovely thing to wake up to, the music for I Am Not A Witch has been nominated for a BIFA!

After a bunch of congratulatory texts I had no idea what they were on about I saw the nomination against the likes of Carter Burwell and Paul Weller!!!

The film picked up 13 nominations in total, see here for more info

https://www.bifa.film/awards/nominations

I’ve had the pleasure of scoring these features recently

I’m Not a Witch dir. Rungano Nyoni

A feature fiction film about witch camps in Africa following young Shula who has been accused of being a witch. The score ranged from Vivaldi to rap, country to atonal jazz. The whole film had a very original feel to it and the use of music was always carefully “skewed” to the narrative to fit with the off the wall, deadpan comedy about a very serious and tragic situation. Premiered at Cannes film festival 2017.

Pop Aye dir. Kirsten Tan

Oh no not another arthouse Thai mid-life crisis road trip with an elephant movie I hear you cry! Honoured to write music for Kirsten Tan’s (Singapore) very original debut feature. Thana, an architect who feels he has been spewn out by the city he’s worked for his whole life, discovers his childhood pet Pop Aye the elephant and sets off across Thailand to take him back to their childhood home. The score for this was mainly in the 60s Surf guitar realm with some Morricone cowboy moments, offsetting the sweeping Thai countryside and fitting with the rediscovered youthfulness and sense of adventure from our lone cowboy Thana and his steed, Pop Aye. Premiered at Sundance Festival 2017 picking up the Best Screenplay Award.

Europe at Sea (documentary) dir. Annalisa Piras

A feature documentary for Annalisa Piras and Springshot Productions following Federica Mogherini (picured) High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy . Federica has the momentous task of overhauling Europe’s defence strategies dealing with issues including terrorism, immigration, conventional and asymmetric warfare. The score gave me the opportunity to get experimental and dystopian whilst trying to keep a European flavour, in keeping with it’s cultural breadth and historical depth. For forthcoming broadcast across Europe including Sky, ARTE and SVT.

Hello, well it has been a while, I’ve been really fortunate to have worked on some great projects so far this year, such as…………………………………………………..

Miss Transgender: Britain’s New Beauty Queens

Feature Documentary Dir. Jasleen Kaur Sethi for Minnow Films/BBC1

A documentary following three transgender women competing in the 2015 Miss Transgender Beauty pageant. Really interesting doc and equally interesting to score, trying to capture a sense of bravery and elegance but combining it with occasional vulnerability and the KERPOW! one would expect from these sorts of emotionally charged competitions.

Apprentice

Fiction Feature Film Dir. Boo Junfeng, Augenschein Filmproduktion.

Beautiful and highly original Singapore arthouse film about an executioner’s apprentice, recently premiering at Cannes 2016. I co-scored this with Alexander Zeke, ranging from bubbling and restless strings to claustrophobic sound design, such a rich, moving and understated film all round. Check it out if you can!

Martha Tilston New Album (and new direction!)

I’ve been making music away from film both in the studio and on stage with Martha Tilston singersongstress. It’s always a magical experience. We’ve been beavering away on her new album with a new direction for her heading _BEATS_wards, MUCH fun and we’ve been signed to Membran records in Germany! Here’s to some more European tours!

Every Split Second Counts (The History of Olympic Time Keeping)

Documentary for Omega time keeping. Dir John Dower. Pulse Films.

Well…..I was amazed how engrossed I was by this film, time keeping sounds likes a rather drab subject, but when you get into the history and sports people’s stories and their dedication, either to be awarded or cruuuuuelly denied at the finish line by thousandths of a second….crushing, uplifting. Anyway enough of my opinion, you can watch the whole thing HERE!

Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope

6-part TV series Dir. Cathy Brady. Deadpan pictures for RTE Ireland.

Great comedy drama series written by Stefanie Preisner, following the relationship of two twenty-something party girls. I loved working on this, really great mix of comedy and drama and letting me go a bit leftfield and wonky at times (love a bit of wonky!).

UPCOMING

So just about to dive into some string arrangements for Ninja Tune’s Jono McCleery for his forthcoming album and then onto a feature film called “Popeye” written and directed by Kirsten Tan, starring….an elephant! can’t wait.

Here’s an update on some of the recent features I’ve scored.

IO, ARLECCHINO dir. Matteo Bini, Giorgio Pasotti. A moving Italian film about old and new traditions told through a father and son relationship. I loved working on this film trying to capture a sense of antiquity, the vibrance and earthiness of the Comedia dell’Arte combined with a modern treatment and a nice amount of free reign to go epic! Cinematic release coming soon.

The Great European Disaster Movie Dir. Annalisa Piras for BBC Storyville. A controversial documentary with an interwoven dystopian fiction strand about the way the European Union could be heading if we don’t do something. This was a real joy to work on capturing the breadth and historical depth of Europe combined with a quasi-futuristic dystopia, perfect opportunity to do some wonky weird whilst exploring the wide range of music from across the continent.  Following on from BBC4 broadcast, currently being broadcast and screened across Europe.

As You Were Dir. Jeikai Liao. A subtle and powerful film, loaded with everything that goes unsaid in a relationship between two childhood sweethearts reunited after many years of separation. The gentle and experimental approaches in the film offered me the great opportunity of focusing in on being delicately understated one moment then to be throwing random objects inside a piano and severely mistreating it to coax out some industrial cityscape Singapore jazz mutants.

A lovely Polish film I scored last year “Smutne potwory” (“Sad Monsters”) directed by Justyna Tafel has just won the Grand Prize at the prestigious ZOOM-ZBLIŻENIA Międzynarodowy Festiwal Filmowy in Poland.

What a fantastic and surreal evening at the BAFTAs! A tonne of stars a tonne of free cocktails and Sleeping with the Fishes getting some of those gold faces to take home for Best Short Animation! Wow!!!!! Who’dathunk it?