Biography
Mark has been writing music for television since 1985. His credits include Flesh and Blood, The Adventure Series, Shakespeare's Wars of the Roses and the BBC's late lamented soap Eldorado. He has also written for commercials, music libraries, live events and video. Mark is a director of the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters, and Academy Recordings.
Before becoming a composer Mark had a brief spell as a sports journalist, after which he joined Dick James Music Studios as a sound engineer, working with artists including Haircut 100, Modern Romance, Psychic TV, Patti Palladin, and the film director Derek Jarman.
In 1994 he began writing and arranging for English language courses and has since produced over 2,000 songs. He continues to work on his own material and recently co-wrote a song for a Finnish feature film. He has also produced for radio, been a voiceover artist, scriptwriter and recently ... albeit briefly ... an actor.
A professional sounding underscore, although it will struggle to stand out because all the sounds are ubiquitous in TV music these days. No real sense of place (South America)and there could have been more darkness, danger and poignancy. All things mentioned in the brief.
3 years 2 months 7 days
Lots of musical content (including Bohemian Rhapsody theme!) Interesting as a piece and I can imagine it working with sweeping natural history images. Possibly too many climaxes (timps and cymbals?)
3 years 1 months 4 days
Good sense of the sea.Interesting arrangement, bringing rhythm in and out. Needed stronger melody to take attention away from arpeggios.
3 years 1 months 4 days
Melancholy - well-scored and played. Didn't sound quite bleak enough to be "nuclear devastation".
3 years 1 months 4 days
A piece of quality writing - even if the John Williams chord pair creeps in a few times. Fab sound and exciting arrangement.
3 years 1 months 4 days
Interesting to hear this because I arranged the music for video version of ESC's Wars of the Roses ... almost 20 years ago! This has a similar feel to some of that. Well scored, well recorded and I can hear it working well with the drama.
3 years 30 days
Impressive demonstration piece, but as it didn't start with a visual or director's brief, it's round the wrong way vis a vis the real world. Why are the staccato punches there, for example, other than that they sound good?
3 years 30 days
Plenty of room for the pictures to speak. Pace and movement appropriate for marine theme.
3 years 30 days
It works, but doesn't really go anywhere. It wouldn't be at all out of place in the context of the programme, but 10 seconds later you'd struggle to remember much apart from the instrument sounds and perhaps the rhythm.
3 years 30 days
Busy. Interesting you chose the word "minimalist". I can see what you were trying to do in terms of the characters, but the result is a bit too cluttered to be as effective as it could be.
3 years 30 days
Excellent piece of work, imaginatively scored and with impressive sense of dyanamic. Interesting arrangement. Very "marine" and natural world in feel.
2 years 11 months 3 days
Interesting combination of sounds. The vocals are not over-used and the percussion is suitably filmic. Plenty of space. It does feel like it wants to take off at times.
2 years 11 months 3 days
Fits all the aspects of the brief in terms of Jewishness and melancholy. The orchestration of the accompaniment is a bit heavy.
2 years 11 months 2 days
Took me to a Yiddish rather than a Celtic place. As a piece of music I really like it, well arranged, played and recorded. The whistle sound didn't bother me - made it quite French ... reinforced by the accordion.
2 years 11 months 2 days
Good sense of mystery and anticipation. Tuning? Or is that my ears? I can hear it working with voiceover. Could have been stronger melodically.
2 years 11 months 2 days
I can see this working really well with dramatic visuals that reflect the various moods of the piece. As a piece of music it lost me somewhere in the middle.The melodic hook needed to be stronger for it to really shine on its own. Good sound though.
2 years 10 months
Very interesting. I assume this is a performance piece. The repetitive percussive machine sounds work well. Something bothered me a bit about the way the voice samples were used. The repetition of lines was perhaps unnecessary and made me think of them more as musical device than a an archival record that brought authenticity to the piece. Sorry, was that a bit Newsnight Review!
2 years 10 months
Sounded a bit disturbing rather than sophisticated. I assume the random percussive effects made sense with the pictures. The final 30 seconds were the most interesting.
2 years 10 months
Excellent piece of work. Strange ending as if the band stopped suddenly ... maybe that's what happened. Well played and recorded.
2 years 10 months
Interesting development and arrangement. Seemed to end suddenly without being led to it musically, but it's hard to judge without hearing it in context with the pictures.
2 years 7 months 10 days
Good sense of dynamics and well scored. Even without the pictures it's not difficult to imagine. Overall a good piece of work, despite a strange inconclusive ending.
2 years 7 months 10 days
Well composed and orchestrated without pulling up any trees for originality. I can imagine the images and can see it working. Impressive if this is a first attempt at writing for an orchestra.
2 years 5 months 23 days
Most interesting piece was at 57". It overshadowed the other clips which were soon forgotten ... followed by U2 pastiche. A composer who knows his way around, but as a showreel it would leave a producer a bit confused.
2 years 4 months 11 days
I liked the approach and there was wit in the composition. It would have been interesting to see the images that went with this music. Nice handling of the background strings and the harp stuff was good.
2 years 4 months 11 days
Unusual, interesting, and would work well with the right visuals. Not so much science fiction as psychological thriller I thought. Although in that context, the random plinks in the second half would be a short step from comedic.
1 years 5 months 27 days
Great song for a Rom Com. Melancholy without being cheesy. I liked the arrangement. The vocal was particluarly good in the lower registers - nicely recorded. Hint of 'I'm Not in Love' in the middle 8. :)
1 years 5 months 27 days
It's not particularly dark, but would work well with the right visuals. Nicely composed, arranged and produced. A quality piece of work all round and hopefully it will get plenty of use from the B&H library.
1 years 5 months 27 days
Interesting and hypnotic, with an arrangement leaving plenty of air. It had a nice atmosphere, but could have done with a bit more melodic content. Reminded me of an artist that I used to listen to a lot - a harpist called Andreas Vollenweider.
1 years 3 months 2 days
Romantic ... the writing was better than the execution, mainly due to the limitations of the synthy sounding strings. The dynamics would come naturally to a real section, whereas the programming here is a bit heavy-handed. Hard to make a romantic piano and string piece sound distinctive, but a good effort.
1 years 3 months 2 days
Nice atmosphere, but didn't hint at any of the narrative. Sounds very comfortable. You've used the words "feisty", "nervous breakdown", "magic realism", "fear". No real sense of that. It sounded liek the closing credits where everything has been resolved, if in a somewhat melancholy way.
3 years 2 months 7 days
It would have been useful to know what's happening on screen. It's hard to know how relevant the voices are. Ecclesiastical feel which may be entirely appropriate. Good dynamic, but not many surprises.
3 years 30 days
The second half works better than the first, although the wavy sound with the edit did get very irritating. Very strange and out of control mix, which may be have been due to creating a particular effect. As a piece of music, not one to "enjoy", but that's not always necessary.
1 years 5 months 27 days