David Arnold - the new Bond composer

David Arnold first came to the attention of the public through his work on Stargate and Independence Day which were hugely successful box-office hits. Arnold scored both of these using large traditional orchestral forces, in full heroic mode. This must also have impressed the producers of the James Bond franchise, since David Arnold was then asked to take over the mantle of resident Bond composer from John Barry. This is not an easy task since Barry has been scoring Bond music for decades, and his broad sound is now very closely associated with the series. However Arnold has taken the essential elements of Bond and updated them for the 90s and beyond, by incorporating driving rock rhythms and the use of today's technology in the production.

To underline his place as the new Bond man, but at the same time to pay his respects to the work of John Barry, Arnold put much effort into his "James Bond project". This resulted in the "Shaken and Stirred" album containing many favourite classical bond theme-songs updated and arranged by Arnold and sung by a variety of well-known singers or groups, including Leftfield, Pulp, Chrissie Hynde, Propellerheads and Iggy Pop. A "making of" TV programme was created during the recording of this album and you may be able to catch this on TV at some point. Arnold has also done the soundtrack for the latest Bond outing "Die Another Day" with Madonna singing the title theme, and appearing in a small on-screen cameo. The music is very techno in places, but the familar Bond landmarks are still there.

Though he worked with a number of singers on his "James Bond project", he has also collaborated with artists on their own songs. Notable examples of this include his work with Bjork on the hit song "Play Dead", and a song for Natasha and Daniel Bedingfield. Recently Arnold was awarded an "Academy Fellowship" by BAFTA, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. The award was presented by Bond lyricist Don Black with Matt Lucas and David Walliams from the TV series "Little Britain" in attendence. Arnold's score for the latest (though in some senses earliest) James Bond film Casino Royale is now on general release in the UK, and ignores the techno trend of recent years to go back to the largely acoustic basics of the earlier films. Stylistically everything "Bond" is there except the main theme which is only briefly hinted at until the end titles where Bond becomes the James Bond that we all know. The "Casino Royale" soundtrack is available at these links: Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.

Arnold is a very busy man. He was one of the judges in the Audi Reel Talent Award, where the winning films were shown in London in September 2007. Then he was working with the Kaiser Chiefs in the BBC Electric Proms in October.

Films by David Arnold:

• The Young Americans
• Last of the Dogmen - a conventional orchestral score movingly depicting wilderness and the mysterious ways of the native americans who lived there
• Stargate - by turns dark and mysterious, then uplifting and heroic
• Independence Day - exciting stuff, effortlessly moving from gung-ho heroics with bits of pomp and circumstance to the nasty un-American aliens!
• A Life Less Ordinary
• The Visitor
• Tomorrow Never Dies - new composer on the Bond scene
• Godzilla - though the soundtrack album is mainly songs with only a few tracks by Arnold
• The World is Not Enough - now confirmed as resident Bond composer
• Wing Commander
• Shaft - the recent remake, which extensively uses the original Isaac Hayes theme and similar sounds
• Zoolander - some small sections of underscore between the song tracks including a starring role for Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax"
• Changing Lanes
• Die Another Day - latest Bond, with much Techno and Madonna
• The Stepford Wives (2004) - the remake has lots of female voices and strings
• Casino Royale (2006) - a "back to basics" score in the original John Barry jazz mold, with only brief hints of the Bond theme until the End Titles

TV themes by David Arnold:

• Stargate SG-1 - a contribution to the series spawned by the movie
• Randall and Hopkirk (deceased) - the BBC remake with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer
• BBC Hall of Fame: Barbara Windsor
• Doctor Who audio adventures - not strictly music for TV but based on a TV show
• Little Britain - resident composer for this comedy series

Recommendations:

The "Shaken and Stirred" album is an excellent introduction to the work of David Arnold including cover versions of Diamonds are Forever, Moonraker, Thunderball, Live and Let Die and a short but truly amazing version of From Russia with Love sung by Natacha Atlas. You can find this on Amazon.co.uk in the UK, or Amazon.com in the US. Piano sheet music is available called "Themes from Independence Day" from International Music Publications, including Flyers' Theme, Presidential Theme, Hiller's Theme and the Alien Attack Theme all integrated into a overture for piano solo.