Mel Wesson

Last updated

Mel Wesson
Birth nameMel Wesson
Born (1952-02-12) 12 February 1952 (age 72)
Origin London, England
Genres Ambient music design, Film score, Video game score
Occupation(s) Ambient Music Designer, Composer
Instrument(s) Synthesizer
Website MelWesson.com

Mel Wesson (born 12 February 1958) is a British film, TV and video game composer and ambient music designer. He is a highly influential 'musical sound designer' in Hollywood having worked on many blockbuster films, yet his sound is often hard to describe or even identify. He is probably best known for his collaboration work with Hans Zimmer and has contributed with both ambient music design and music to some of last decades biggest Hollywood blockbusters. He has also made numerous production music CDs for Extreme Music which loosely feature some of the atmospheric textures in his world of ambient music design.

Contents

On the Inception premiere in Hollywood, Wesson and Zimmer designed an outdoor sound installation using the atmosphere and soundscapes from the movie itself, exclusively for the audience. In Wesson's own words: "Hans wanted the audience to remain within the Inception dreamscape as they left the LA Inception Premiere. In order to achieve this I put together a 40-minute soundscape designed to surround the audience as they followed the mirrored walkway from the Gaumans Chinese Theatre in Hollywood to the nearby after-show reception. The soundscape comprised of ambience from the movie, together with a few well chosen FX from Inception sound designer Richard King." [1]

Early life and career

Wesson was born and raised in London, England. Despite numerous efforts to persuade him to follow a more conventional musical path he gravitated towards the synthesizer as his instrument of choice.

After leaving art college the formative stages of Wesson's career saw him touring and recording with a number of new wave bands. Wesson also began working out of Hans Zimmers' Lillie Yard Studio where he began to explore the studio and experiment with sound and picture as well working with such artists as Siouxsie and The Banshees, producer Mike Hedges and musician Youth. He received a multi platinum award for his contributions to The Verve's Urban Hymns album and their single "Bitter Sweet Symphony". It was this album Zimmer was listening to in 2000 when he spotted Wesson's credit and invited him to work on the score for Mission: Impossible 2 .

Since that time Wesson has created his own niche within the movie score genre as an ambient music designer. This area of atmospheric sound has weaved its way through many of Zimmer's' scores including Ridley Scott's Hannibal and Black Hawk Down . Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins , The Dark Knight, and most recently Inception .

Outside of his feature film work, Wesson composes scores for commercials, television and video games; some of his television scores include work for the BBC, ITV, Discovery, MTV, CNN News broadcasts, Sky.

Ambient Music Design / Additional Music

Feature films

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1992

  • Dakota Road

1988

Video games

2013

2009

2007

Other projects

Inception Live Premiere Performance

Awards

Wesson received a multi-platinum award for his contributions to The Verve's Urban Hymns album and the anthemic single "Bitter Sweet Symphony".

See also

Ambient music design

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans Zimmer</span> German film composer (born 1957)

Hans Florian Zimmer is a German-born American film score composer and music producer. He has won two Oscars and four Grammys and has been nominated for three Emmys and a Tony. Zimmer was also named on the list of Top 100 Living Geniuses, published by The Daily Telegraph in 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Holkenborg</span> Dutch musician and composer

Tom Holkenborg, also known as Junkie XL, is a Dutch composer, multi-instrumentalist, DJ, producer, and engineer.

Graeme Revell is a New Zealand musician and composer. He came to prominence in the 1980s as the leader of the industrial/electronic group SPK. Since the 1990s he has worked primarily as a film score composer.

<i>The Da Vinci Code</i> (soundtrack) 2006 film score by Hans Zimmer

The official motion picture soundtrack for The Da Vinci Code with Thomas Bowes (violinist), King's Consort Choir, Hugh Marsh, Orchestra, Richard Harvey, Hila Plitmann, Martin Tillman was released on May 9, 2006 via Decca label. The film's music was composed by Hans Zimmer, whose work resulted in a nomination for the 2007 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.

<i>Batman Begins</i> (soundtrack) 2005 soundtrack album by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard

Batman Begins: Music from the Motion Picture is the soundtrack album to Christopher Nolan's 2005 film Batman Begins. It was released on June 15, 2005. The soundtrack drew from the film score, composed by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, as well as contributions by Ramin Djawadi, Lorne Balfe and Mel Wesson.

Remote Control Productions, Inc. is a film score company run by composer Hans Zimmer and based in Santa Monica, California. Originally known as Media Ventures Entertainment Group, which was conceived and founded by Jay Rifkin and Hans Zimmer, the company changed its name after the partners both filed lawsuits against each other. Today, Remote Control is home to a large group of composers mentored by Zimmer, many of whom have had successful film scoring careers as part of the company or on their own.

<i>The Dark Knight</i> (soundtrack) 2008 soundtrack album by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard

The Dark Knight: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album to the 2008 film of the same name, which is a sequel to Christopher Nolan's 2005 film Batman Begins. The soundtrack was released on July 15, 2008, in three editions: CD, limited edition CD digipak, and digital download. The 2-CD Special Edition was released on December 9, along with the DVD. A limited edition 180-gram vinyl LP was released on August 12. The soundtrack was composed by Batman Begins collaborators Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard and recorded in April.

<i>Inception</i> 2010 film by Christopher Nolan

Inception is a 2010 science fiction action film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who also produced the film with Emma Thomas, his wife. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a professional thief who steals information by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets. He is offered a chance to have his criminal history erased as payment for the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious. The ensemble cast includes Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Elliot Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Dileep Rao, and Michael Caine.

Award-winning German composer and music producer Hans Zimmer has composed and produced over one hundred soundtracks and film scores. Of them, about 50 soundtracks and songs were nominated for awards. He has won two Academy Awards, four Satellite Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, four Grammy Awards, three Saturn Awards, two Annie Awards, and two WAFCA Awards.

Ambient music design is a fusion of original film score and sound design. It has elements of Ambient music and Drone music and is supposed to complement a specific scene or the entire movie, TV-series or video game.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard King (sound designer)</span> American film sound designer and editor

Richard King is an American film sound designer and editor who has worked on over 70 films. A native of Tampa, Florida, he graduated from the University of South Florida with a BFA in painting and film. He has won Academy Awards for Best Sound Editing for the films Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), The Dark Knight (2008), Inception (2010), and Dunkirk (2017). He was also nominated for War of the Worlds (2005), Interstellar (2014), Oppenheimer (2023) and Maestro (2023). He has won Bafta awards for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), Inception (2010), and Dunkirk (2017) and eight MPSE awards for Best Sound Editing & Design, as well as the MPSE Career Achievement Award (2016).

<i>Inception</i> (soundtrack) 2010 soundtrack album by Hans Zimmer

Inception: Music from the Motion Picture is the soundtrack to the 2010 film of the same name directed by Christopher Nolan, released under Reprise Records on July 13, 2010. Hans Zimmer scored the film, marking his third collaboration with Nolan following Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

<i>The Dark Knight Rises</i> (soundtrack) 2012 soundtrack album by Hans Zimmer

The Dark Knight Rises: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack to the film of the same name, the sequel to Christopher Nolan's 2008 film The Dark Knight. The soundtrack was released on July 17, 2012. The CD edition of the album contains an exclusive code to unlock three bonus tracks, titled "Bombers Over Ibiza ", "No Stone Unturned", and "Risen from Darkness". Two additional bonus tracks, "The Shadows Betray You" and "The End", are digital-download exclusive tracks. The soundtrack was officially released online for streaming purposes on July 10.

<i>Man of Steel</i> (soundtrack) 2013 soundtrack album by Hans Zimmer

Man of Steel: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack to the film of the same name composed by Hans Zimmer. It was released on June 11, 2013, by WaterTower Music and Sony Classical Records. The exclusive deluxe edition of the album contains six bonus tracks, entitled "Are You Listening, Clark?", "General Zod", "You Led Us Here", "This Is Madness!", "Earth" and "Arcade".

<i>12 Years a Slave</i> (score) 2013 film score by Hans Zimmer

12 Years a Slave is the original soundtrack album to the 2013 film 12 Years a Slave starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, and Lupita Nyong'o. The record contains twenty-one tracks from the original film score written and composed by Hans Zimmer. Despite its limited release, critical acclaim has been given to the score from the film industry. The score was nominated for the 2013 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, and won the 2013 Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association award for Best Score.

<i>Interstellar</i> (soundtrack) 2014 soundtrack album by Hans Zimmer

Interstellar: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album composed by Hans Zimmer for the 2014 film Interstellar by Christopher Nolan. The soundtrack garnered critical acclaim and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.

<i>Dunkirk</i> (soundtrack) 2017 soundtrack album by Hans Zimmer

Dunkirk (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2017 film of the same name directed by Christopher Nolan, released under WaterTower Music on 21 July 2017, the same day as the film's theatrical release. The score was composed and created by Hans Zimmer, who collaborated with Lorne Balfe, Andrew Kawczynski, Steve Mazzaro, and Benjamin Wallfisch to provide additional music. It was recorded at a 11-month period during early-2016 and several instrumentation and sounds were modified to create intensity in the score. Nolan and Zimmer wanted to create suspense through cinematography and music, hence Zimmer had written several tracks to accommodate the auditory Shepard tone illusion, a feature that has been explored in Nolan's previous films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinematic style of Christopher Nolan</span> Filmmaking style of Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan is a British-American filmmaker known for using aesthetics, themes and cinematic techniques that are recognisable in his work. Regarded as an auteur filmmaker, Nolan is partial to elliptical editing, documentary-style lighting, hand-held camera work, natural settings, and real filming locations over studio work. Embedded narratives and crosscutting between different time frames is a major component of his work, and his films often feature experimental soundscapes and mathematically-inspired images and concepts. Nolan prefers shooting on film to digital video and advocates for the use of higher-quality, larger-format film stock. He favours practical effects over computer-generated imagery, and is a proponent of theatrical exhibition.

Music of <i>Dune</i> (2021 film) 2021 soundtrack albums

The music for the 2021 American film Dune was composed, conducted, and produced by Hans Zimmer. Zimmer wrote several soundtracks of music for the film, including for its sequel, and heavily utilized choir—specifically female voices—percussion, and strings in the score's instrumentation, as well as acoustic and wind instruments. New, hybrid instruments were fabricated to conceive the "otherworldly" tonal desert sounds heard in the film. The music has been described as the composer's most "unorthodox" and experimental yet. In addition, the score for the film earned Zimmer his second Academy Award for Best Original Score. When Dune: Part Two was announced for a 2023 theatrical release, it was revealed that Zimmer had begun work on the film's music and had over an hour of music to assist the filmmakers in planning the film.

BRAAAM is a loud, low sound that became popular in trailers for action films in the 2010s. It is commonly associated with the 2010 film Inception, but the origin of the sound as it appeared in the film is disputed. The sound and its variants are often referred to as the "Inception sound", the "Inception noise" or the "Inception horn".

References

  1. "Mel Wesson: Other Projects -". Melwesson.com. Retrieved 28 July 2020.