Simon Wilkinson (composer)

Simon Wilkinson (born Simon John Wilkinson, 2 February 1972, Worthing, Sussex) is a British ambient musician and composer mainly working in the fields of music for film, television and documentary. He also works under the production name 'The Blue Mask' or 'Thebluemask'.

Simon Wilkinson
Birth nameSimon John Wilkinson
Also known asThe Blue Mask
Born (1972-02-02) 2 February 1972
OriginWorthing, England, UK
GenresSpace music
Ambient music
Soundtracks
Drone
Trailer music
Production music
Electronic
Alternative
Occupation(s)Musician
Composer
Years active2001–present
LabelsRadiant Point, Free Floating Music
Associated actsMaritime, Mr Bennett
Websitewww.thebluemask.com

Early career

His musical beginnings include working with Canadian singer songwriter Mike Bennett on a series of musical and song collaborations starting in 2002 with studio demos for a number of Bennett's songs (under the name Mr Bennett). That same year, Wilkinson also began working with Brighton-based Northern Irish singer songwriter Brian Bell under the name Maritime/Maritime Hotel (a changing collective of Brighton musicians headed by Bell). These initial Maritime recording sessions attracted interest from BBC radio culminating in several live sessions and radio interviews.[1]

After focusing more heavily on film and television soundtrack production work for the next few years, one of his first commercial musical scores was the soundtrack to the 2004 independent film The Club[2] directed by Tony Balogun[3] and starring Treva Etienne.

Recent works

Wilkinson continues to write and record music for television and film productions. His style of film music is often described as heavily texturally based, combining complex atmospheric ambient soundcapes with often simple melodic structures which attempt to mirror the narrative of the visuals; his score to Peter Matsoukas' The Intersection was described by Microfilmmaker magazine as "compelling music that makes you want to get to the bottom of the mystery at hand".[4] His arrangements often involve the use of orchestral and percussive instrumentation combined with electronic sounds as well as more traditional acoustic instruments and piano.

Other feature film scores include his soundtrack to Eric Omani's dark 2007 thriller Spare Change[5] and his contributions to the soundtrack of Modern Life's 2004 martial arts action feature film Left For Dead.[6] He has also written music for several Canadian TV commercials as well as providing production music for TV shows and trailers including Sky One's Football icon and Fox Network's 24 starring Kiefer Sutherland.

In 2011, he wrote the music for Randy Halverson's astronomy time lapse film Plains Milky Way[7] which gathered features on Wired[8] and National Geographic.[9]

His music since this time has focused largely on the Space music genre including long-form atmospheric instrumental pieces and science-fiction soundtracks.

Discography

Studio albums
Year Album
2008 Royalty Free Music For Film & Documentary, Volume 1: Piano And Atmospheric Beds
2009 Royalty Free Music For Film & Documentary, Volume 2: More Piano And Atmospheric Beds
2009 Royalty Free Music For Film & Documentary, Volume 3: Animated Antics
2009 Royalty Free Music For Film & Documentary, Volume 4: Dramas And Thrillers
2010 Royalty Free Music For Film & Documentary, Volume 5: Cinematic Piano
2011 Royalty Free Music For Film & Documentary, Volume 6: Dark Matter
2012 A Momentary Lapse: Music From The Time Lapse Films Of Randy Halverson
2012 Royalty Free Music for Film & Documentary, Volume 7: 13 Days of Nightmares
2014 Royalty Free Music For Film & Documentary, Volume 8: Deep Space Ambient
2015 Cryosleep Dreams
2016 Perpetual Dimensions
2017 Merging The Infinite
2018 Stateless
2019 Hegira

Compilations
Year Album
2016 Reflection
  • Track #4, "Parallax Frequency Shift"

Awards

Angel Film Award

Monaco International Film Festival

  • Won: Best Original Music 2010: 'First Darkness'[10]

Gold Medal for Excellence in Music

Park City Film Music Festival

  • Won: Gold Medal for Excellence in Music for a Documentary Film 2011 for the film 'Evolution: The Grand Experiment Episode 1'[11]

Personal life

Wilkinson currently resides and works in Worthing, England.

gollark: They are ALL named John.
gollark: But tradition is actually bad a lot.
gollark: All the computer stuff is probably on one board with a bunch of wires for the display and antennas and power nowadays.
gollark: But that probably runs Android or something! It's certainly not safe.
gollark: I need that, though.

References
  1. "Latest 7 » Music chart". thelatest.co.uk.
  2. "The Club (Video 2004)". IMDb. 30 November 2004.
  3. "The Club (2004) - Tony Balogun - Cast and Crew - AllMovie". AllMovie.
  4. "Microfilmmaker Magazine - Final Film Critique: The Intersection, Pg. 1". microfilmmaker.com.
  5. "Spare Change (2007)". IMDb. 2 August 2007.
  6. Mike Hilder (9 September 2005). "Left for Dead (2005)". IMDb.
  7. "Plains Milky Way". DAKOTALAPSE.
  8. "Time-Lapse Video Catches Milky Way Season in Swing". WIRED. 3 June 2011.
  9. "Staff Pick from the Web: This is the... - National Geographic - Facebook". facebook.com.
  10. "ANGEL AWARDS - Monaco International Film Festival". angelfilmawards.com.
  11. "2011 award winners". The Park City Film Music Festival.

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