The Soundtrack
Michael J. McEvoy – Composer
Michael is an award-winning composer whose credits include performing, writing and producing music for film and TV, as well as working with some of the most exciting artists in popular music. Film and TV credits include British feature Finding Your Feet starring Imelda Staunton and Timothy Spall, ITV mini series Dark Angel, original music for Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Welles, as well as several films with acclaimed documentary director Gary Johnstone such as the 5 part series Alien Deep (NATGeo) and docu-drama Einstein’s Big Idea/E=Mc2 (NOVA-PBS/C4). Michael is also as a contemporary jazz composer, performing his compositions as The Mike McEvoy Band. His album The Long Way Home (2014) received glowing praise and featured a stellar line up of modern British jazz stars including Nigel Hitchcock, Gerard Presencer, Jason Rebello, Ben Castle and James Maddren.
Music and Sound Awards Nomination
Congratulations to Michael McEvoy for his well-deserved nomination in the BEST ORIGINAL COMPOSITION IN A TELEVISION PROGRAMME SCORE category for the 2019 Music and Sound Awards. A fitting recognition for a beautiful score. Check out all the nominees here.
Jazz Ambassadors Spotify Playlist
Click here to listen to a playlist of songs featured in the documentary
Mike McEvoy Interview
Composer Mick McEvoy and Engineer Nick Taylor discuss their work on the score.
Recording at Air-Edel Studios
In August 2017, composer Michael J. McEvoy assembled some of London’s best jazz musicians at Air Edel Studios for a couple of days of wonderful recordings. Back row from left to right: Paul Booth (sax, clarinet), Patrick Clahar (sax), Dennis Rollins (tenor trombone), Karl Rasheed Abel (bass), Mark Mondesir (drums), Fayyaz Virji (bass trombone), Kevin Robinson (trumpet), Freddie Gavita (trumpet, flugelhorn). Front row left to right, Michael McEvoy (soundtrack composer) and Hugo Berkeley (director). Additional session musicians not in this picture are: Tom Walsh (trumpet), Graeme Blevins (sax), and Jane Fenton (cello).
About Air-Edel Studios
One of London’s most storied recording studios, Air-Edel was founded by Sir George Martin and Herman Edel 45 years ago.
Originally built as a theatre to serve as the meeting hall for the Theosophical Society, the studio building was converted into Star Sound Studios in 1937 and became the first independently owned recording studio in the UK. Star Sound specialised in recording live performances in front of audiences to wax disc that were to be later broadcast on Radio Luxembourg. Star Sound were also the first studio in the UK to record a full-length radio programme to magnetic tape in 1949.
In the late 1960s, Star Sound became a rock and roll recording studio under the name Audio International and throughout the 1970s and 1980s recorded numerous hit records by artists including Pink Floyd, Tom Jones, Harry Nilsson, The Sweet and Suzi Quatro. When it was acquired by Air-Edel Associates in 1990, the studio also began to record and mix music synchronised to picture for commercials, television, and films such as ‘The Escape’, ‘David Brent: Life on the Road’, ‘Virunga’, ‘Mr Turner’, ‘Thor’, ‘My Week With Marilyn’, ‘Gosford Park’ and ‘Pride and Prejudice’.
