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Live Footage | |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Brooklyn, New York, USA |
| Genres | Cinematic, Classical, Electronic, Hip-Hop, Indie Pop, Jazz |
| Years active | 2008–present |
| Members | Topu Lyo Mike Thies |
Live Footage is an American electro-acoustic, improvisational music act. It consists of cellist and electronic musician, Topu Lyo, and drummer/multi instrumentalist, Mike Thies.
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Lyo plays cello, incorporating the use of live loops and a handful of electronics and synthesizers. Thies plays drums and keyboards simultaneously. They have held a residency at Apotheke in NYC’s Chinatown since 2010. [1] Improvisation was the basis of this approach.
Live Footage has been described by Wall Street Journal as one of the finest “surrealist soundtrack composers” in the making by scoring some of the most eclectic contemporary pieces in film, fashion, dance and in tune composing their own music. [2] They have shared bills with notable artists such as Emily Wells, Dan the Automator, Robert Glasper, and Pharaoh Monch. They have also performed for Charity Water’s live event in San Francisco raising over 7 million dollars to build water wells in Ethiopia [3] .
Having composed music for countless commercial projects for notable brands including KC Chiefs, Van Cleef & Arpels, [4] UNICEF, [5] Red Bull, Rag & Bone, [6] and BMW to name a few, Live Footage has provided original scores for numerous films, including NAACP Image Award winning “Ali: The People’s Champ” [7] . As regular collaborators of directing duo Coodie & Chike, Live Footage was recently tapped to compose the original score for the Emmy Nominated Kanye West Trilogy - “Jeen-Yuhs” released on Netflix in 2022. They composed the score for 4 part series on Hulu "After Baywatch: Moment In The Sun" directed by Matthew Felker in 2024. In 2025 they composed the score for a documentary about NBA star Tim Duncan "The Boy From St. Croix" directed by his brother Scott Duncan, and well as "Beam Me Up, Sulu" directed by Timour Gregory and Sasha Schneider. Sulu is a documentary about Star Trek's George Takei. It was selected at the 2025 Raindance Film Festival [8] .
Most recently, they teamed up with J.M Harper to score the documentary "Soul Patrol". It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival [9] in 2026, where Harper won the U.S. documentary director's award [10] . It's a adaptation of Ed Emanuel's book of the same name [11] about the first all African American highly skilled regiment (called LRRP's - Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol) in the Vietnam War.
