Autumn & Winter 2021 brought another collaboration with Ivor Novello nominated composer Tom Hodge on his score for the ITV drama, The Ipcress File, the latest 6-part adaption of Len Deighton’s classic novel.

Deepening the sound

My work with Tom began with an exploration of the orchestral string language for the series. Taking each of the themes Tom had composed, I started cultivating new arrangements and iterations that would help to deepen and enrich the musical language. By the time the first few episodes were ready for the final scoring process, we felt we had arrived at a stylish and narratively effective orchestral language that complemented the other ‘spy’ elements to the score.

Studio 22 - Budapest Arts Orchestra

East Connection Music Recording and the Budapest Arts Orchestra were chosen as the outfit for the string sessions. From October to December I made 3 visits to Hungary as we worked through the score for Episodes 1-2, 3-4 and 5-6. Although East Connection offer remote attendance, with the sheer amount of music we had on the stands, I made the judgement that it would be best to produce in person ‘in the room’, even if this meant having to navigate all the complex yet necessary travel restrictions that were in place.

East Connection Music Recording has been recording film & TV scores since 2009, with an industry-standard studio spec, recent credits include The Queen’s Gambit and Shadow & Bone.

As the series developed, so too did the score, as Tom and myself continued the deepening of live elements, and developed the language of the string writing in particular. Over a period of 3 months I prepared over 300 pages of score for 15 hours of string sessions and 10 hours of wind and brass sessions. My work on the series also involved preparing all of the session mixes and stems for each cue.

The opening bars of he final string cue for The Ipcress File

Other Collaborators

Meeting fellow composer Ollie Howell was another bonus to working on this project. Ollie produced much of the percussion elements used across the series, and worked with me to produce the wind and brass sessions at Press Play Studio whilst I was away in Budapest. The Wind & Brass musicians were contracted by SoulEndvr. The score was mixed by Olga Fitzroy (The Crown, Dr Who, Ghost Stories) and the Music Editor was Gerard McCann.