Magnus Fiennes - Composer Profile

Magnus Fiennes has become, and remains, one of the most respected and hard working composers in his field. Across all genres and musical media forms and within all strands of the industry, his work is highly lauded amongst peers and the public alike. He is quite simply, a man of music.

From Soweto choirs to South London sound systems, from massed Zulu drum troupes, Arabic ensembles, Indian maestros, and gypsy jazz bands to world class orchestras and soloists, from collaborations with song writing legends Hal David and Don Black and iconic record producers Daniel Lanois and Chris Thomas to coaching performances from the doyens of stage and screen such as Marrianne Faithfull, Tom Jones and Dame Vanessa Redgrave, his range of experience, and depth of expertise is unparalleled.

Equally deft at crafting delicate symphonic tapestries, powerful, rhythmically charged contemporary tracks or intricate beds of mold-breaking minimalist electronica. Magnus calls on his arsenal of composing skills in combination with great taste, flair and individuality, to create some of the most original music heard on screen in recent years. Whether he is conjuring up magically evocative film scores, often beautifully sparse and emotionally compelling, or whether it be the insouciance and cool he brings jazz-tinged scores he has created for all seven series of the vastly successful show, Hustle, or writing and producing commercial album and song releases for some of the world's most successful pop acts, or music-directing world tours for Shakira,; no matter what the requirement, Magnus is the 'go-to' man.

Despite his success in all fields of music, it is fair to say that film and television scoring remain Magnus' first love. He has composed several major film scores and theme songs including, the recently released Sigma Films feature Donkeys, as well as Onegin (Artisan Films), Chromophobia, (starring Penelope Cruz, Ralph Fiennes & Ben Chaplin), and Caspar The Friendly Ghost, the feature sequel for Classic Media USA. In the same year he created, developed, produced and scored the $20 million animated cartoon series of his own conception, Freefonix, which went on to successfully sell across many worldwide territories.

He has scored all seven series of the hugely successful BBC series Hustle, as well as Murphy's Law for Tiger Aspect, the dark thriller Five Days - a BBC/HBO co-production for which he wrote a wonderfully elegiac title song -, Vital Signs for ITV, and Last Enemy for Box TV. Magnus also scored both series of the gritty drama, The Fixer, for Kudos. Most recently he completed scoring the hard hitting upcoming legal drama for ITV, Injustice.

Further to all this, Magnus has also scored numerous major campaign film and TV commercials - too many to mention!

He is a composer in demand, and rightly so. A keen collaborator, skilled and original artist, charming individual and above all, a true creative professional, his music speaks for itself.

Television Credits

INJUSTICE	ITV Director: Colm McCarthy Producer: Eve Guttierez Starring Charles Creed Miles, James Purefoy, Lisa Diveney
THE FIXER (Series 1 and 2)	Kudos Productions/ITV Director: Alrick Riley Producer: Faith Penhale Starring Andrew Buchanan, Jody Latham, Peter Mullan
HUSTLE (Series 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 & 7)	BBC Directors: Robert Bailey, Otto Bathurst, Bharat Nalluri Alrick Riley, Minkie Spiro, John Strickland Producers: Simon Crawford Collins, Karen Wilson Starring Robert Vaughan, Adrian Lester
LAST ENEMY	Box TV Director: Ian B. Macdonald Producer: Gub Neal Benedict Cumberbatch, Robert Carlyle
FIVE DAYS	BBC / HBO Director: Otto Bathurst Producer: Paul Rutman Starring Hugh Bonneville, David Olewayo
MURPHYS LAW	BBC Northern Ireland / Tiger Aspect Director: Colm McCarthy Producers: Greg Brenman, Patrick Spence Starring James Nesbitt
VITAL SIGNS	Tiger Aspect Director: Charles Palmer Producer: Kate Crowe Starring Tamzin Outhwaite
PLEASURELAND	Kudos Productions/Channel 4 Director: Brian Percival Producer: Natasha Dack

Film Credits

DONKEYS	Sigma Films Director: Morag McKinnon Producers: Gillian Berrie, Anna Duffield
CASPAR THE FRIENDLY GHOST	Classic TV Producer: Evan Baily Starring Jim Belushi, Bob Saget
CHROMOPHOBIA	Rotholz Pictures/Isle of Man Film Commission Director: Martha Fiennes Producers: Ron Rothholtz, Tarak Ben Amar Starring: Penelope Cruz, Ian Holm, Kristen Scott Thomas, Rhys Ifans, Damien Lewis
PETER COTTONTAIL 'THE MOVIE'	Kapow Pictures Director: Mark Gravas Producers: Evan Baily, Ralph Guggenhiem Starring: Roger Moore, Christopher Lloyd, Tom Kenny
ONEGIN	Artisan Films Director: Martha Fiennes Producers: Simon Bosanquet, Ileen Maisel Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Liv Tyler	Winner at Tokyo Film Festival and BAFTA nominated
PREACHING TO THE PERVERTED	PTTP Films Director: Stuart Urban (BAFTA award winner) Producers: Keith Hayley, Stuart Urban Starring: Tom Bell, Guinevere Turner
SOUP	Axis Films Director: George Tiffin Producer: Alex Winter Starring: Trevor Eve, Alan Howarth
THE RECKONING	Renaissance Films Director: Paul McGuigan Producer: Caroline Wood Starring: Paul Bethany, Willem Dafoe, Brian Cox

Commercial Song Production / Song writing

Magnus has been the musical force behind some of British pop music’s finest moments. From the rousing post-modern terrace chant ‘Vindaloo’ to The Spice Girls 1990’s chart invasion, He has worked with leading artists such as Pulp, Tom Jones and Morcheeba. In 1997 he produced the All Saints million seller single Never Ever - a No. 4 in the US and No. 1 throughout Europe; producing and co-writing on their eponymous multi-platinum selling album. As an in demand producer arranger programmer and re-mixer, Magnus has worked with a diverse range of artists including Jamelia, Jamie Foxx, Lenny Kravitz, Neneh Cherry, Bryan Ferry, Seal, Yello, David McAlmont, Ian McCulloch, Roland Gift, Nigel Kennedy, Trilok Gurtu, Damien Hirst and Dot Allison as well as pop acts such as the Spice Girls. He recently music directed the 2010/11 world tour, Shakira. He also composed and produced two multi-million selling albums from the controversial all-girl classical quartet Bond. Further work includes producing the double platinum ‘Watching Angels Mend’ for Australian singer songwriter Alex Lloyd a collaboration with prestigious Canadian violinist Lara St John on a ground-breaking album of ‘Bach With Beats’ for Sony Classical, and co-writing material with Massive Attack and The Sugababes. In addition Magnus has written and produced a number of featured songs creating title song for Paramount’s ‘Addicted to Love’ Madonna’s ‘Next Best Thing’ and Scala Pictures music biz satire ‘Five Seconds to Spare'Working Title’s Rowan Atkinson vehicle ‘Johnny English’. Magnus has written music for many major commercial campaigns including Coca-Cola, Ford, Pepsi Cola, Gordons Gin, Grolsh, Railtrack, Caesar’s Palace, Rover, Sega, Nintendo, Ferrero Rocher and Braun. As a keyboard player he toured extensively with blues guitar legend Gary Moore in an all-star line up with Pink Floyd’s Guy Pratt on bass and jazz luminary Gary Husband on drums.

Magnus's IMDB page
Wikipedia