“...there is magic there...”
Albert Hammond
“...beautiful...”
Katherine Jenkins
“...Schubert/Mozart, with a slightly modern twist...”
Daniel Carr - Composer Forum
Posts:
- Hiccup Waltz
- Nocturne (for a late baby!)
- I. Allegro in C
- 1st Mate Wriggleys Pirate Jig
- Birthday Suite
- Sonnet (in 9)
- Baby Pickett!!
- Amsterdam Suite
- Postcards: IV. Corridors
- 3 Symphonic Sketches
- Andy Hughes Suite
- Splitsound Suite
- Creep (arr. Radiohead)
- Reflection IV
- Laudamus Te
- Reflections Suite
- Gutterboy Suite
- Romance
- Tongue of the Hidden
- Nachtmusic
Hi there! Thanks for visiting my website. I am a composer / producer living and working in London. I have provided music for a wide variety of tv and film - and I also provide sound design (+ MD) for use in media and advertising. I have worked in many genres but this website is mainly dedicated to the work I have done for orchestra and classical ensemble. Below is the first act of a ballet I am working on called The Black Rose:
The Black Rose: Act I scenes i-iii - May 2012 Act I - scenes i-iii |
My music has been used in over 50 countries on over 100 channels worldwide via music libraries that include Universal, Carlin, Warner Chappell and Long Lunch. I have released 6 albums under the pseudonym The Legendary Danny K but more recently have concentrated on my first love: orchestral composition which this site aims to give an overview of.
I was born in 1976 and spent my first years in Cornwall while my father helped set up the Sawmills Studios on the river Fowey. A couple of years later we moved to London where I have lived (on and off) ever since. My dad, Phil, has spent his career in the music business - firstly in the 70's band Sailor, and then in the 80's with Culture Club. Because of this I had an awesome childhood including lots of travel and meeting some incredibly interesting and famous musicians.
I went to St James Independent School for Boys and was very lucky to go to a school that took music, and the performance of music, very seriously with performances of Mozart's Requiem, Mass in C minor and Purcell's Te Deum at our end of year concerts. It ignited a huge passion for classical music within me and frustrated at St James's lack of music A-level, I attended Richmond-upon-Thames college where I was taught music theory by George Selman. George was an amazing teacher and liked nothing more than ripping up the curriculum and starting from fresh. Sadly George passed away just before we were to sit our final exam - but his influence and approach has remained wiith me ever since.
After college I studied composition at Exeter University under Phil Grange (himself a student of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies). It was an interesting time for me - observing a modern school of music intellectualism. Personally, creatively speaking, I found it restrictive and left after a year to move into my dad's studio while he took a sabatical. Here I put together 2 trip hop albums (Melatonin and Freetrader) and released them under the pseudonym The Legendary Danny K. The release of these albums also coincided with the launch of mp3.com - a digital platform that allowed anyone that could encode an mp3 the ability to upload their material into a global chart. Royalties were paid everytime the track was played or downloaded and a number of tracks from these albums were successful and though largely ignored by the industry, allowed TLDK to be something of a global brand selling downloadable digital content in over 100 countries worldwide.
I would go on to release 5 other albums under this pseudonym - We are one, Space Breaks, The Drop, Nightshift and Big Plans and in 2002 signed a licensing deal with Carlin Music ® for sync use in TV, film and radio. Ever since I have been passionate about using the web as a platform for independent music delivery. I keep everything I earn (rather than the typical 8%) and have enjoyed creative freedom to do what I will (those that know me tell me this is all I am really capable of anyway!).
In 2006 I started to write purely orchestral music again and, at this current point in time, this is what I spend most of my time working on. I have put this new website together to showcase this work which I have (mostly) put together on my apple laptop running Logic 9 - and lots of help from good friends I have made in the industry, and most of all my beautiful girlfriend Lizzie who patiently puts up with all the turkeys that never see the light of day ;)
Please do get in touch if there is anything you hear that you wish to comment on - I am very much a gun for hire and would love to hear particularly about any film projects (big or small).
Hiccup Waltz 14th Mar 2012
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Hiccup Waltz |
So...my beautiful boy is here and mum is back home safe. Things slowly get back to some type of normal with me finding an evening to put this simple waltz together.
Nocturne (for a late baby!) 21st Feb 2012
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II. Nocturne (for a late baby!) |
With some unexpected time on my hands I have put together a lullaby for our late arrival. Its in an unusual time sig (10/4) but was something I had wanted to try since hearing Radiohead's "Everything in its right place" off my favourite album of theirs Kid A.
I. Allegro in C 11th Feb 2012
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I. Allegro in C |
I decided to take a stab at sonata form with this one. I realised that it was a form I never used yet it was undoubtedly the form that got me into listening to orchestral music. I sort of did it - its missing a coda as the recapitulation ends the piece (which I think would lose me points). I didn't get as much time to mix / master this one as I am due to have a baby any day now (!!) but, as ever, thought I would post it up for general consumption.
1st Mate Wriggleys Pirate Jig 1st Feb 2012
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1st Mate Wriggleys Pirate Jig |
I was called by an old friend Roger Watson to do some foley and possibly a theme tune for an audio recording of a book called "The Tides of Avarice" by John Dahlgren. By kind permission he has allowed me to post the theme tune here - so I hope you enjoy because I certainly did! Arghhhhh......
Birthday Suite 31st Dec 2011
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The Black Rose |
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Rhapsody |
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Scherzo (Boxer) |
A new suite for the new year and the birth of my first child. Naturally I have been consumed with excitement with the expectation and, although I have not had as much time for composition as I would like, these ideas have come together over the course of what has been a remarkable year for many different people.
The Black Rose is a piece I wrote after hearing my baby's heartbeat during one of our scans. You may notice the pulse that goes the whole way through the track: delicate but determined. The riots had been going on whilst I wrote it and you may also hear what are meant to be sirens on the violins - there was definitely an edgy energy that night. Other than that there is no real program behind the piece but it has definitely been a challenge to write taking me over 6 months to get what you hear now.
Rhapsody came about after I wanted to rework ideas from the Waltz de Prinsengracht that I posted earlier this year. Its made up of an assortment of ideas that I have yodelled into my iPhone over the past year (usually when I am shopping). Great for getting strange looks
The last part Scherzo (Boxer) is a piece I wrote a year ago but thought it was too short - however music tends to be the length it needs to be and I thought it had echoes of the last movement of Beethoven's 5th Piano Sonata (op10.1) - one that I occasionally try and murder from time to time ;).
Sonnet (in 9) 22nd Nov 2011
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Sonnet (in 9) |
Sonnet (in 9) is a piece I have written for piano and small orchestra that is in 9/4 and made up of 9 9-bar sections - a musical challenge I set myself one evening and this is what I had the next morning; all except for the final section which took me a couple of weeks to settle on.
Its the first thing I have written whilst Lizzie has been pregnant (at least in whole) so I will play it to my son or daughter when they are old enough and hope they like it too!
Baby Pickett!! 2nd Aug 2011
I am overjoyed to announce myself and Lizzie are expecting our first child due in February 2012. Here is a sneak preview of the little one. Mum and baby are doing well and we can't wait to introduce our new (and first) addition to our family.
I'll never forget this day when we saw this brand new soul on the screen in the Chelsea and Westminster. I can't wait to introduce my son or daughter to all the wonders of the world. For now though its time for some serious growing - and for dad, some serious composing before all hell breaks loose!
Amsterdam Suite 1st Aug 2011
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Waltz de Prinsengracht |
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Waltz de Kaizersgracht |
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Herengracht Rhapsody |
Earlier this year myself and Lizzie had a wonderful 10 day trip to Paris and then Amsterdam (work and pleasure respectively). The 2 cities just ooze inspiration and when we hit Amsterdam I fired up the laptop and started work on some French influenced rhapsodic waltzes. This is the result so far and although I have been tinkering with them now for 6 months I think its time for them to see the light of day.
Amsterdam has to be one of my very favourite cities, especially so as we lived there for a year in 2006. We rented an apartment just round the corner from where we lived and I sat on the back porch with my headphones on. I think this is the first thing I have ever composed outside! Quite brisk still in March!
Postcards: IV. Corridors 24th Jul 2010
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Corridors |
We got to New York after over 3 weeks in Barbados and checked in to the Chelsea Hotel which I had booked after remembering going to visit Keziah Jones back in 1992 and harbouring an ambition to stay there ever since. We had an amazing room right on the top floor of what, at one point, was the tallest building in New York. You couldn't help but feel the magic in the corridors, the tales of excess, the art, the ideas...
The idea for this piece came about when we were in Time Square. It is quite rare for me as the whole idea came in one and I put the initial sketches down on my computer on the flight back to London. I am trying to find out if this validates it as the worlds first transatlantic concerto!
3 Symphonic Sketches 1st Apr 2010
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The City as Body |
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Epsilon |
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Allegro Marcato |
3 new ones - the first one inspired by my hometown London and in the first movement, The City as Body, a vision of the city in narrative form from the opening chapter of Peter Ackroyd's biography London (which I highly recommend). I tried to capture the pulse of the city and the sense of drama, especially in the way the city represents a life (or a soul) of its own.
Epsilon, a scherzo, is inspired by a work by Bartok I played at college and looks to utilise contrasts of colour between the louder and quieter passages: the chaos of the city in contrast with the quiter back streets. If you notice one or two similarities with a certain passage from Stravinsy's Rite of Spring then I am afraid I would have to plead guilty as charged!
The final part, Allegro Marcato gives prominence to the clarinet and has a loose narative of commerce within the city. I had plans to extend these sketches into a symphony and in a way this piece is made up of abandoned pieces to that end. I also considered adding them to the Postcards Suite - but now remain certain they are a piece on their own and a piece about London.
Andy Hughes Suite 1st Jul 2009
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The Will |
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The Endeavour |
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The Mirror |
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The Dance |
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The Reckoning |
I got some devastating news today. My friend Andy Hughes sadly died at the weekend. He was someone who had an enormous influence on my musicality and my studio engineering. Furthermore large sections of the UK music community won't know what a luminary they have lost - a completely overlooked producer / arranger / programmer / writer of class and flair.
I met Andy in 2002 when he was helping set up my fathers new studio in 2002. I had gone along for the day with the sole purpose of meeting, in my opinion, the most talented guy from the orb as he was showing Dad how to use his new logic set-up. It would be true to say I was in awe - Orblivion is one of my favourite ever albums. Not only did I learn more that day about being a professional musician than my entire time at University - I also met a kind, fun and inclusive musician. Towards the end of the afternoon we made a song together and then went off for a Nando's.
A couple of weeks later Andy called me and invited me up to his studio in Brixton. It was incredibly exciting for me to visit Andy's studio - next door to the Basement Jaxx (who he introduced me too) showing me lots of Mac music tricks that I still use on a nearly daily basis. I would play him something I had been working on and he would offer advice - and then he would blow my demo out the park with his latest and greatest fizzing out the studio monitors like champagne on crystals.
The strangest thing happened when, what turns out to be the last time I saw Andy, I was waiting in the car for my girlfriend to finish work in Soho and was chatting to some people who were smoking outside their office nearby as they could see I was having trouble getting my car to start. I decided to give Andy a call as we had seen each other just before Christmas and had discussed starting a film and tv sync catalogue. As his phone rang - who should walk round the corner but Andy fishing his phone out his pocket to answer my call. He was actually on his way to have a meeting with the people I had been chatting too!! An insane coincidence made doubly bizarre that at the time I was living in Brighton and Andy was living in Rochester! As it happened he was early so we had half an hour in the car playing each other some stuff and making plans. He really liked my Psychogenic material and I don't mind telling you I'm still chuffed (and will always be) with his comments on that. Andy played me some of his latest which as ever bounced out the speakers with sparkle and wit.
Much of Andy's best stuff remains unreleased - most probably still sitting on his hard drive so I will be making noises at the funeral of some way of cataloguing his work for posterity. I'll miss you mate - if your reading....
Above is an orchestral suite that I have written in his memory. Life just won't be the same without him.
Really chuffed that William Orbit retweeted my tracks for Andy (link)
Splitsound Suite 1st Jun 2009
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Part 1 |
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Part II & III |
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Part IV & V |
Splitsound was inspired by a number of different artists - not least Miles Davis (particularly Sketches from Spain). I wrote it in my dad's studio while he was on holiday (a perk of dog-sitting!) and came up with the riff on piano and building it up from there.
Reflection IV 14th Feb 2009
Me and Lizzie spent Valentines Day with our movie camera around Brighton on a beautiful Spring day. The Starlings down by the pier are a truly one of the wonders of the world and when we came home we took our movie footage and edited it to the 4th and final movement from my Reflections suite written 2 months before.
Laudamus Te 1st Feb 2009
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Laudamus Te |
I have always enjoyed Mozart's great masses - in particular the Requiem (which is the piece that got me into classical music) and then the Mass in C minor. This is my attempt to emulate music of this sort. Its fooled one or two people - and was fun to put together. My (slightly bemused) friend Bella Saer (who has done loads of tv music) provided the vocal. Apologies for it being a bit rough around the edges but it was a demo that didn't move forward so I thought I would post it anyhow. Its a "my mum" favourite too - and I look forward to putting the rest of the mass together though this is maybe slightly hypocritical as I don't have a religious bone in my body! I do admire the spirituality of music that use these set texts.
Recently I hounded Katherine Jenkins to have a listen to this track on Twitter and very kindly she did - I heard back her a couple of weeks ago: (link):
Jack,apologies as only for round 2 listening 2your other songs last night.Laudamus Te is beautiful,I will pass it on 2 Warners
Rather chuffed - the power of twitter in a nutshell!
Some great comments from the composers over at the Composer to Composer forum. (link)
Absolutely Beautiful! Nice work
Schubert/Mozart, with a slightly modern twist. Very nice, Jack. I'm sorry nobody got to comment on this, but I like this a lot. Especially the double-voice effect near the end!
Gutterboy Suite 1st Aug 2008
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Gutter Overture |
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Berrick St Waltz |
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City Where I Live |
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Gutter Waltz |
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Gutter Atmosphere |
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Love Theme |
Tongue of the Hidden 1st Oct 2007
It was a privilege to work on this beautiful film, directed by David Anderson, which I recorded (and produced) all the music and voiceover for - it was challenging as it has both the original Iranian language as well as an English translation - and, unusually, the process was an organic one with the soundtrack and the animation coming together at the same time. In addition to this is the music written by Anoosh Jahanshal. I absolutely loved recording the music on the Sitar (not to be confused with the Indian Sitar) and was completely in the dark about Iranian music which I am now very passionate about. I was also new to the poetry of Hafez which is the narrative of the film.
