Simon Boswell
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Simon Boswell |
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Simon Boswell (b. October 15th, 1956) is a BAFTA nominated British film score composer, conductor, producer and musician, with more than 90 credits to his name. He is known for combining mainly electronic elements with orchestral.
Biography
Boswell studied English Literature at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Playing the guitar since the age of 12[1], he was an accomplished guitarist and was signed by Transatlantic Records in 1975 whilst still at college. This led to the release of his first solo album, "The Mind Parasites", a collection of contemporary acoustic songs and instrumentals. He formed the band "Advertising" in 1977, at the beginning of punk rock era. Labelled 'Power Pop', the band was more of an homage to the pop art style of Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground. They toured extensively with Blondie.[2] Following the demise of Advertising, Boswell became a record producer both in the UK and Italy. His production of Italian mega star Renato Zero is to this day the biggest selling Italian album of all time. Boswell’s record productions from the 1980s have influenced many contemporary musicians – notably the sample of the band 23 Skidoo's "Coup" which became The Chemical Brothers' "Block Rockin' Beats".
Film
Boswell's film career started in 1985, and since then he has countless awards from around the world and has been nominated twice for a BAFTA award. Boswell has worked with many directors, including Danny Boyle, Michael Hoffman, Dario Argento, Clive Barker and Alejandro Jodorowsky. The films span a wide range of genres – Italian exploitation (PHENOMENA, STAGE FRIGHT), contemporary thrillers (SHALLOW GRAVE, HACKERS), horror flicks (LORD OF ILLUSIONS, HARDWARE), romances and character studies (JACK AND SARAH, THIS YEAR'S LOVE, BORN ROMANTIC), dramas (IN MY FATHER'S DEN, THE WAR ZONE, MY ZINC BED), fantasies (SANTA SANGRE, PHOTOGRAPHING FAIRIES, TIN MAN) and literary classics (A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, COUSIN BETTE). He has also recently collaborated with many high profile artists on his projects, such as Elton John, Dolly Parton and Marianne Faithful.[3] Established as a live performer as well as working in recording studio, he is accomplished with electronic and rock genres, combining these with epic orchestral scores.
Simon recently composed for and produced "Alma Mater", the Christmas album featuring Pope Benedict XVI. The works combine Gregorian chant along with Western art contemporary music and Middle-Eastern influences, and the album was launched officially at a concert in Westminster Cathedral in November 2009, featuring the Chamber Choir of the Philharmonic Academy of Rome and singer Yasemin Sannino. "Santo Subito" was Simon's first project with the Vatican. The film is a collaboration with the Vatican setting the speeches and the singing of Pope John Paul II to Simon’s music and visuals.[4]
TV
Boswell has composed for BAFTA nominated TV series The Lakes, and collaborated with film-maker Brian Hill and poet Simon Armitage on "Pornography: The Musical" and "Songbirds".[4]
Music
Boswell has worked with musicians from bands such as Blur, Orbital, The Sex Pistols and Echo And The Bunnymen.
In Autumn 2006, his album "Close Your Eyes" was released independently via his own Flick Records after 12 years of work.[2]
Quote: "I cut up my previous scores into bits and re-assembled them as new songs mixing full orchestra with musicians from Blur and The Kills and spoken word parts for some of the actors and directors I have worked with along the way – including Ewan McGregor, Ray Winstone, Goran Visnij, Dario Argento and Alejandro Jodorowsky."[4]
Art
Simon continues to work on his own unique art project called BLINK!, an audio-visual installation looped to last forever of portraits extracted from news footage, and individually scored with their own soundtracks. This was first exhibited at the ICA in London in 2002 on 4 simultaneous cinema-sized screens.[2]
Film Credits
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2008
2006
2005
2004
2003 2002
2001
2000
1999
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1998
1997 1995 1994 1993 1992 1990
1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 |
TV Credits
2007
- Tin Man
- Nearly Famous (6 episodes)
- Catwalk Dogs
2006
- Jackanory (2 episodes)
- The Magician of Samarkand
- Muddle Earth
2004
- Sea of Souls (2 episodes)
2003
- Pornography: The Musical
2002
- Widows
2001
- Mind Games
2000
- Jason and the Argonauts
1999
- Tube Tales (segment "Bone")
1998
- Killer Net[5]
Other Music Credits
2004
- In My Father's Den - Music Recordist
2003
- Octane - Soundtrack Producer
1999
- Women Talking Dirty - Music Arranger
- The Debtors - Conductor
1998
- Cousin Bette - Music Arranger and Producer
1994
- Second Best - Music Arranger
1987
- Fino alla morte (TV) - Music Arranger[5]
References
- ^ "The Fantastique Film Music of Simon Boswell". 2009-06-18. Retrieved 2010-02-09.
- ^ a b c "Simon Boswell on Movie Music UK". 2008. Retrieved 2009-12-10.
- ^ "Simon Boswell - A Man Alone". 2000. Retrieved 2009-12-10.
- ^ a b c "HotHouse Music". HotHouse Music. Retrieved 2009-11-03. Cite error: The named reference "HotHouse Music" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ a b c "Simon Boswell on IMDb". Retrieved 2009-12-03.
External links
- Official site
- HotHouse Music
- Simon Boswell at IMDb
- Simon Boswell discography at Discogs
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