Leland Originals Signs Composer Neil Davidge

As a co-writer, producer and sonic pioneer of the lauded Massive Attack albums Mezzanine, 100th Window and Heligoland, Bristol’s Neil Davidge has birthed some of the most arresting and innovative sounds on record, helping to sculpt and define Massive Attack’s classic and critically acclaimed cinematic sound.

He has simultaneously forged his career as a hugely respected film composer scoring a wealth of lauded features, including his collaboration with Robert Del Naja for Louis Letterier & Luc Beeson’s Unleashed, Paul McGuigan’s Push and Tia Lessin & Carl Deal’s award-winning documentary Trouble The Water. He has also scored the worldwide best-selling computer game, Microsoft’s Halo 4, and recent headline TV drama such as BBC & Hulu’s Hard Sun and the Jez Butterworth’s blockbuster Britannia I and II for Sky & Amazon Studios.

Managing director of Leland Originals, Gary Downing, says: “From his seminal collaborations with Massive Attack through to his recent scores on the likes of Britannia and 8 Days: To The Moon & Back, Neil is an instinctive musical storyteller who couples huge themes with razor-sharp production. We are thrilled that he has joined the roster, and are incredibly proud to be representing Neil.”

Launched in 2016, Leland Originals is an independent agency representing composers and songwriters for film, TV, advertising and new media. They work closely with filmmakers to bring to their productions both established composers, and the most promising, burgeoning talent currently emerging from a diversity of backgrounds. Their composer roster includes Tom Hodge (McMafia, Rise of the Nazis), Peter Gregson (Blackbird, A Little Chaos), Frank Ilfman (Ghost Stories, Big Bad Wolves) and Jessica Dannheisser (The Queen & I, Siblings). Its sister company, Leland Music, are one of the UK’s leading music supervision agencies, sourcing, producing, developing, creating and licensing music for film, TV, advertising and brands. Founded in 2005, the team are known for their supervision work on the hugely popular John Lewis Christmas campaigns, Channel 4’s Paralympics trailers and more recently the Netflix & Cowboy Films series Top Boy.

For Neil, it has been a non-stop period of creative composition, arranging and production, one that is gathering momentum and seems destined to reach even greater heights. As well as releasing his solo album Slo Light in 2014, he has recently arranged and produced the trailer for the globally successful BBC One natural history series, Seven Worlds: One Planet, narrated by Sir David Attenborough. Neil’s career has seen him score advertising campaigns for Jaguar and Adidas, as well as collaborating with Snoop Dogg whilst scoring music for In Prison My Whole Life, a documentary about US death-row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Neil’s individual style is based upon long and dedicated hours of alchemical, suck-it-and-see sonic experimentation fused with effortless and epic orchestral themes, driving guitar and unique electronic soundscapes. His composition style demonstrates pulsating tension and natural music storytelling abilities are delivered in his unsurpassed and an impossible to copy modern production style.

He is currently composing original scores for the forthcoming BBC & Left Bank Pictures Windrush drama, Sitting In Limbo, as well as a new sports documentary series.

Working closely with Leland Originals, 2020 and beyond promises to be a defining period for this unique and influential British composer.