Simon Wilkinson (composer)

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Simon Wilkinson
Birth nameSimon John Wilkinson
Also known asThe Blue Mask
Born (1972-02-02) 2 February 1972 (age 51)
Origin Worthing, England, UK
Genres Space music
Ambient music
Soundtracks
Drone
Trailer music
Production music
Electronic
Alternative
Occupation(s) Musician
Composer
Years active2001–present
LabelsRadiant Point, Free Floating Music, 551143 Records DK
Website www.thebluemask.com

Simon John Wilkinson (born 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'.

Contents

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.

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 [1] directed by Tony Balogun [2] 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 soundscapes 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". [3] 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 [4] and his contributions to the soundtrack of Modern Life's 2004 martial arts action feature film Left For Dead. [5] [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 films Tempest Milky Way [7] and Plains Milky Way [8] which gathered features on Wired [9] , Yahoo! News [10] and National Geographic. [11]

His music since this time has focused largely on the Space music genre including long-form atmospheric instrumental pieces and science-fiction soundtracks which regularly feature on ambient and space music radio stations and podcasts such as Hypnagogue [12] , Syndae [13] and Blue Water Drift Dive [14] .

His music can also be heard in live museum exhibitions [15] and installation projects [16]

Discography

Studio albums

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

Compilations

YearAlbum
2016Reflection
  • Track #4, "Parallax Frequency Shift"

Awards

Angel Film Award

Monaco International Film Festival

Gold Medal for Excellence in Music

Park City Film Music Festival

Personal life

Wilkinson currently resides and works in Worthing, England.

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References

  1. ↑ "The Club (Video 2004) - Full Cast and Crew". IMDb. 30 November 2004.
  2. ↑ "The Club (2004) - Tony Balogun - Cast and Crew - AllMovie". AllMovie.
  3. ↑ "Microfilmmaker Magazine - Final Film Critique: The Intersection, Pg. 1". microfilmmaker.com.
  4. ↑ "Spare Change (2007) Full Cast & Crew". IMDb. 2 August 2007.
  5. ↑ "Left for Dead (2005) Full Cast & Crew". IMDb.
  6. ↑ "Left for Dead (2005) Full Cast & Crew". rottentomatoes.com.
  7. ↑ "Tempest Milky Way". dakotalapse.com. 23 August 2011.
  8. ↑ "Plains Milky Way". dakotalapse.com. 3 June 2011.
  9. ↑ "Time-Lapse Video Catches Milky Way Season in Swing". WIRED. 3 June 2011.
  10. ↑ "Jaw-droppingly gorgeous video captures the Milky Way as Earth spins". news.yahoo.com. 26 August 2011.
  11. ↑ "Staff Pick from the Web: National Geographic - Facebook". facebook.com.
  12. ↑ "Hypnagogue Episode 306". www.hypnagoguepodcast.com. 18 June 2020.
  13. ↑ "Syndae Episode 435". www.syndae.de. 25 May 2018.
  14. ↑ "Blue Water Drift Dive Podcast". www.bluewaterdriftdive.com. 16 July 2018.
  15. ↑ "Exo Earth at St. Peter's Wallingford - A Very Special Exhibition". www.visitchurches.org.uk. 5 November 2023.
  16. ↑ "Singapore Night Festival 2019". www.vimeo.com. 20 September 2019.
  17. ↑ "ANGEL AWARDS - Monaco International Film Festival". angelfilmawards.com.
  18. ↑ "2011 award winners". The Park City Film Music Festival.

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