Simon Boswell Simon Boswell

Born: 1956, London, England.

Biography:
British composer and producer Simon Boswell was interested in music at an early age; inspired to pick up an electric guitar by listening to his brother's Jimi Hendrix records, Boswell released a solo album in 1976, entitled "The Mind Parasites", while he was studying at Cambridge University, and went on to form the band Advertising, who toured with Blondie during the late 1970s. Boswell switched to record producing in the early 1980s, and worked with Amii Stewart and Nik Kershaw among others, until he bumped into director Dario Argento at a party in Rome in 1984, where he was producing a band called Live Wire. Argento asked Boswell to collaborate with the group Goblin, who were writing the score for his film "Phenomena", and the switch into film scores was set in motion. After spending several years writing music for low-budget Italian cinema, and working with acclaimed directors such as Lamberto Bava and Alejandro Jodorowsky, Boswell finally broke into the more mainstream market in 1990 when he scored Richard Stanley's "Hardware". Since then Boswell has become a respected composer on the independent circuit; his more high profile scores have included "Dust Devil" (1992), "Shallow Grave" (1994), "Lord of Illusions" (1995), "Hackers" (1995), "Photographing Fairies" (1997), "The War Zone" (1998), "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1999), the SciFi Channel mini-series “Jason and the Argonauts” (2000) and ‘Tin Man” (2007) .In addition to his film work, Boswell has also been involved in several ambitious multi-media projects, notably Santo Subito, a film produced in and by the Vatican which sets the speeches and the singing of Pope John Paul II to music, and Blink, an audio-visual installation of portraits of such luminaries as Queen Elizabeth II and Bill Clinton, extracted from news footage, looped to last forever, and individually scored with their own soundtracks, which was first exhibited at the ICA in London in 2002. Also, in Autumn 2006, Boswell released a solo album, “Close Your Eyes”, which featured extracts from his film scores, re-arranged and set as new songs featuring voice parts for some of the actors and directors such as Ewan McGregor, Ray Winstone, Goran Visnic and Dario Argento. Simon lives in north London with his wife, actress Lysette Anthony, and sons Jack and Jimi.

Reviews:
Circus, Cousin Bette, In My Father’s Den, Lord of Illusions, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Octane, Perdita Durango and This Year's Love

Filmography:
The Backwoods (2008), Bathory (2008), Slapper (2008), Catwalk Dogs (2007), Tin Man (2007), Free Jimmy (2006), Incubus (2006), Naboer (2005), The River King (2005), Churchill: The Hollywood Years (2004), In My Father’s Den (2004), Sea of Souls (2004), Octane (2003), Pornography: The Musical (2003), The Sleeping Dictionary (2003), Summer in the Golden Valley (2003), Alien Love Triangle (2002), Doctor Sleep (2002), Widows (2002), Mind Games (2001), The Secret Glory (2001), Born Romantic (2000), Circus (2000), Jason and the Argonauts (2000), There's Only One Jimmy Grimble (2000), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999), The Debtors (1999), This Year's Love (1999), The War Zone (1999), Women Talking Dirty (1999), Cousin Bette (1998), Killer Net (1998), Perdita Durango (1998), Photographing Fairies (1997), The Lakes (1997), American Perfekt (1997), Dad Savage (1997), Downtime (1997), Deacon Brodie (1996), The Android Affair (1996), Hackers (1995), Lord of Illusions (1995), Jack and Sarah (1995), Butter (1994), Second Best (1994), Shallow Grave (1994), That Sunday (1994), A Few Short Journeys of the Heart (1994), Zinky Boys Go Underground (1994), Love Matters (1993), Pretty Princess (1993), Dust Devil (1992), The Turn of the Screw (1992), The Outsider (1992), Piccolo Buoni e Ladri (1991), Mockba (1991), Hardware (1990), Young Soul Rebels (1990), Voice of the Moon (1990), Eye Witness (1990), La Maschera nel Demonio (1990), Assassin (1989), Il Gioco (1989), Il Maestro del Terrore (1989), Santa Sangre (1989), L'Uomo Che Non Voleva Morire (1989), A Cena Col Vampiro (1988), La Chiesa (1988), Ghost House (1988), Mortal Sins (1988), Una Notte al Cimiteria (1988), La Casa del'Orco (1987), Commander (1987), Deliria (1987), Fino Alla Morte (1987), La Foto di Gioia (1987), Il Ragazzo dal Kimono d'Oro (1987), Demons 2 (1986), Phenomena (1985).

Highest Grossing Films as at end of 2007 (adjusted for inflation):
A Midsummer Night’s Dream ($20.8m), Lord of Illusions ($20.1m), Hackers ($11.4m), Hardware ($8.9m), Shallow Grave ($3.1m), Cousin Bette ($1.8m)

Awards:
1997 BAFTA Awards – Nominee, Best Original TV Music – The Lakes

Links:
Official Site

Born Romantic Cousin Bette Hackers Hardware Lord of Illusions A Midsummer Night's Dream Octane Perdita Durango Second Best Shallow Grave There's Only One Jimmy Grimble This Year's Love Tin Man


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