Solace and the Wave - A Cinematic Composer’s Debut EP

For me, music has always been about telling stories. My debut EP Solace and the Wave is the beginning of a new chapter - six pieces inspired by nature, history, and mythology.

Where it started

One of my earliest musical memories is climbing up as high as I could to reach the keys of my dad’s old piano. I started exploring whatever sounds I could get out of it. From there came the cello, guitar and, eventually, composing.

By 15, I had written a symphonic movement that was performed in Austria and Germany, and at 17, a choral work of mine was performed in Westminster Abbey. Composing never felt like something I could exhaust or grow tired of, and it still doesn't. That's part of what keeps me fascinated by it. I’m always chasing the next idea, looking for that tune, harmony or arrangement that suddenly clicks into place.

The come-up

There’s a lot you can create in a bedroom studio! That’s where I really started to develop my ideas and explore new textures. I’m grateful for all those late nights making music while studying engineering at uni, and all the ones since.

I try to play my instruments as much as possible. It’s important for me never to lose the playfulness that feeds creativity.

I try to stay hopeful and inspired, but sometimes doubt creeps in. And when it does, I remind myself that courage can't exist without the shadow it casts. Without the doubt that always keeps it company.

For me, making music is partly about pushing through that uncertainty, searching for the magic and creating something new. Solace and the Wave grew out of that process.

The project

Hyperborean Suite opens Solace and the Wave.

I wrote the piece while envisioning a distant northern world: icy, vast and slightly magical. “Hyperborean” refers to Hyperborea, the mythical land the ancient Greeks imagined beyond the north wind, and I wanted the music to feel as though it were travelling towards that distant place.

But underneath the landscape and mythology, the piece is also about hope. It begins in a more uncertain place and gradually reaches for something bigger and brighter. In a way, that journey became a fitting way to open my first EP.

What I want you to know

I hope I can take people on a bloody good journey.

What's next

I want to build a life writing music for film and television, and my next ambition is to work as an assistant composer and learn firsthand from people working in that world.

There's a line from Dead Poets Society that has stayed with me: the idea that the powerful play goes on, and that you may contribute a verse. That's what I want to do. Contribute my own line to the great play.

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