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Recording Four Women at Real World
Lady Macbeth’s original motion picture soundtrack is by Dan Jones with Simon Birch on cello
Samantha Ege made a central part of a PhD thesis the resurrection of African American composers written out of history
For composers, by composers Bristol independent film music label Wave Theory Records on adding to Hollywood’s musical folklore
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et up by BAFTA and three-time Ivor Novello-winning composer Dan Jones four years ago, on the back of a long list of film, television and arts projects, Wave Theory was graced shortly after by fellow composer Simon Birch. The duo are now expanding the label into other composers’ work.
TBM: What have been the most exciting projects so far?
DJ: Four Women is up there – a compilation of music by neglected female composers. I’d heard Simon playing some beautiful piano music on his phone and it sounded familiar but I knew I’d never actually heard it. When he explained that it was by African American Florence Price, a composer almost written out of history, it seemed clear that this was an album waiting to happen. His fellow graduate Samantha Ege had made the resurrection of this music a central part of a PhD thesis, and the fact that she had mastered it as a performer, too, sealed the deal. A year later we were at Real World Studios enjoying the culmination of her labours. In a way we were helping her blaze a trail that the BBC has now taken up with its recent series on Black composers – recognising a trait of historical bias that needs redress. SB: Dan’s scores for The Miniaturist and SS-GB, which I had the pleasure of working on as music editor, received two of the three Ivor Novello 2018 nominations for Best Television Soundtrack, with The Miniaturist scooping the prize, so that was a great moment for us. What about in 2020, this most unusual of years? SB: Having started out releasing Dan’s music, what’s been really gratifying is to have two of legendary director Robert Altman’s key collaborators approach us. Allan Nicholls was Altman’s assistant 34 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE
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director on the iconic films Short Cuts and The Player, and Mike Kaplan is a producer who worked with Altman and was also a close associate of Stanley Kubrick and Paul Thomas Anderson. DJ: Altman asked Nicholls to write the songs for his remarkable film 3 Women and we’ll release that plus another two of his films a little later. SB: We’re releasing a single written by Kaplan to accompany the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey at Stanley Kubrick’s request. It feels amazing to be adding to Hollywood’s musical folklore in this way. DJ: Altman and Kubrick are obviously legends of cinema – they were my directing heroes – so it’s a huge honour to be working with their coterie. And hopefully a sign that we’re doing something right. Why Bristol? DJ: I love Bristol. It’s been my home since I was 11. Sky Orchestra this year [an audio-visual artwork delivering music to Bristol from the sky via hot air balloons] was something of a love letter to the city. But there are frustrating things. Bristol is very self reliant so it often turns its back on some amazing international culture in a way that cities like Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle or Edinburgh embrace more readily. But I love the fact people are so down to earth about making music here. There is extraordinary talent in the city, and clearly a relentless search for new ideas and ways of working. SB: We’ve also done a lot of recordings in Cardiff with the National Orchestra of Wales who are great and have a fantastic recording hall that rivals Abbey Road. But it makes us wish Bristol had a professional symphony orchestra. I hope in future that we might have the infrastructure to rival those larger cities, because we’ve certainly got the creative talent.
