In their newest documentary feature Madagascar Diary, the Touratech crew travels across the fascinating island to the southeastern coast of Africa. Equipped with shiny new BMW prototype motorcycles and accompanied by a film crew directed by Wolfgang Danner, Herbert and Ramona Schwarz explore the vibrant wilderness between the sunny beaches of Nosy Bé and the urban scenery of Antananarivo. The result is a stunning, feature-length travel documentary, which is now available on DVD in the Touratech Webshop.

The project called for an eclectic, mostly acoustical music score that blends catchy folk-pop with the traditional African and Asian influences predominant in Madagascan music. For what marks my seventh collaboration with Touratech, I’ve written and produced more than 25 minutes of music for the film, some of which can be heard in its trailer.

All artwork (c) Hans Jørgen Sandnes

Targeted at young readers of ages 5–10, Detective Agency No. 2 is a series of illustrated children’s detective stories that has been launched successfully in the end of 2012 on the Norwegian market by publisher Gyldendal, and will be making its push to the European market this year. The stories are written by accomplished Norwegian author of criminal stories, Jørn Lier Horst, and are illustrated by Hans Jørgen Sandnes.

In addition to the printed books, an audio book adaptation of the series’ first two installments (titled Operasjon Mørkemann and Operasjon Tordensky) has been published in 2013. For this release, I’ve written and produced a catchy and playful jazz big-band soundtrack in the vein of Henri Mancini’s works. The title theme, dubbed Tiril & Oliver’s Theme, is also being featured in the international and Norwegian advertisement trailers for the book series, and has consequently been nominated for Best Music in Advertisement at the 2013 Jerry Goldsmith Awards, one of Europe’s largest film music festival competitions.

Listen to Tiril & Oliver’s Theme on SoundCloud:

Directed by CG veteran Pablo Vazquez and made by a small team of professional Blender artists, Caminandes is a fun 3D short film in the vein of classic Chuck Jones Cartoons. It was released in February 2013 and is currently partaking in several animation festivals. I wrote a playful, jazz-infused orchestral score for the short, and provided the sound design and mixing.

You can find more information on the project’s website or watch the short on YouTube.

Fresh from the cutting room of my studio (which I assure you totally has a cutting room), here’s a brand new, just-short-of-8-minutes demo reel showcasing some of my work from recent years. If you want to get a quick and focused impression of what I’ve been up to and what I have in stock, please do check it out. Featuring slick motion graphics from Sintel artist Soenke Maeter and some never-heard-before opening and closing music! Head over to the Showreel page or watch the reel in crisp HD resolution on Vimeo, and let me know what you think!

In order to call attention to the national law symposium Juristkongress 2012, which will take place in November 2012 in Lillestrøm, Norway, animation company Sandnes Media AS has produced a commercial trailer in their trademark hand-drawn cartoon style. I was responsible for the music and sound design. You can watch the trailer on my References page, or directly on Vimeo.

I just received word that my work got nominated in two categories of the 2012 Jerry Goldsmith Awards! After the jury awarded my score for Sintel twice in last year’s installment of the Awards (Best Music in an Animated Short Film, Best Song), I’m excited and honored to be among the nominees again this year:

• In the category Best Score for a Live Action Short Film, the jury nominated my score for Colin Levy‘s award-winning sci-fi drama The Secret Number.
• In the category Best Score for an Animated Short Film, my score for Tyler J. Kupferer‘s Annie-nominated short The Girl and the Fox got a nomination.

The award ceremony will take place on June 28th at the International Film Music Festival in Córdoba, Spain.

Colin Levy’s award-winning short film The Secret Number can now be watched in its entirety on YouTube and Vimeo! Do check it out and tell us what you think.

In addition to the online premiere, I’ve released my score for the film in its entirety under a free-to-share Creative Commons license! You can listen to it on SoundCloud, or download a high-quality MP3 album from the Music page of this website.

The Secret Number marks my second collaboration with Colin Levy after Sintel. I couldn’t have had a greater time working with him and his gifted team, and I truly believe the film turned into a uniquely captivating and beautiful, see-and-see-again piece of storytelling. The quirky psychological drama, which tells the story of a psychiatrist who gets absorbed into the bizarre mathematical theories of one of his clients, has been acknowledged at numerous film festivals; among others, it was awarded Best Short at Charleston International Film Festival, Best Student Film at Savannah Film Festival, and Best Original Score at Greenville International Film Festival.

At this year’s Greenville International Film Festival, which took place between April 25th to 28th, my music for the short film The Secret Number was awarded Best Original Score by the competition jury! I’m very grateful for this recognition.

The film also continues to gain traction at festivals across the US, among others winning the jury award for Best Short at this year’s Charleston International Film Festival and playing in the official selection at Newport Beach Film Festival.

Lastly, with the final touches on VFX post production nearing their completion, a release date for the film has been announced: On June 15th, 2012, you will be able to watch The Secret Number online. DVD pre-orderers will have the film in their hands before that date.