Dunboyne composer writes score for movie

Dunboyne composer Ciaran Hope has provided the score for the new film 'Truth About Kerry', which premiered at the Femme Film Festival in Los Angeles, where it won the best screenplay award. The movie is having its European premiere at the inaugural Charlie Chaplin Film Festival in Waterville, Co Kerry, this week. Irish writer/director Katie Torpey's dark thriller follows an American girl on a journey to a small fishing village in Ireland to find out what happened to her best friend who was found dead on an Irish beach six months earlier. Torpey went through several composers before handing Hope the task of creating the musical score. Shot on location in Waterville by Irish producer Shaun O'Sullivan, the film stars Stana Katic from ABC's hit show 'Castle'. Working in close collaboration with the director and producer, Hope utilised his ties with the Irish music industry to piece together a soundtrack with a distinctly Irish indie vibe. The movie features songs by Irish bands Seneca, The West Seventies, Steve Gregan, Kila, The Stunning, The Good Fight, Petrol, Eject and Shaun Davey's local Kerry band, Beal Tuinne. When it came time to writing the musical score for 'Truth About Kerry', Hope proceeded to assemble an array of musical talent, which allowed him freedom to truly complement the director's vision for the movie. A closer look at the musicians featured on the score suggests a very strong Irish presence throughout the recordings. Celebrated Irish classical violinist Cora Venus Lunny collaborated with the composer to sculpt a series of beautiful and evocative melodies for the film score. "She really came through for me," said Hope. "I spoke at length with Cora one evening regarding the director's desire for a sound that had 'echoes of Ireland' yet was not overtly Irish." He added: "I think having worked closely with me before on the score for 'Screw Cupid', Cora simply listened to my wishes, went away and recorded exactly what I was looking for in studio in Dublin. I honestly got the perfect violin solos for the score." Also drafted in to contribute to the score was Irish band Kíla, fresh off their success as composers for the Oscar-nominated Irish movie 'The Secret Of Kells'. "We decided to have Kila track some Irish instruments in their unique style over a few of the pieces to add a layer of fun, as I called it," said Hope. Kíla ended up adding both bodhrán, hand drums and touches of Irish whistle throughout the score to help bring life to Hope's vision for the musical textures of the soundtrack. Last but by no means least, Hope had fifth generation Irish piper Kevin Rowsome bring the landscapes of Ireland to life, recording all of the scores glorious uillean pipes in a Dublin studio. To complete the international cast of musicians, he hired acoustic guitarist Jamie O'Connell, and world renowned Canadian percussionist and drummer Satnam Ramgotra, who divides his time between recording major movie scores for film composers such as Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer and Aaron Zigman and touring with acts such as Beck, Sting, Seal and the Black Eyed Peas. Ramgotra ended up spending several days in Hanz Zimmer's remote control studio facility in Santa Monica with Ciarán Hope, carefully texturing the score with his infectious rhythms and sonorities. "The musical score Ciarán created was exactly what I wanted," said director Torpey. "He is great at composing music that evokes an emotional response to scenes with little or no dialogue and knows how to take an ordinary scene and use music to make it extraordinary." Hope is fresh from a hectic year attending premieres of his original work 'Solstice', which was specially commissioned for Solstice Arts Centre in Navan, intended to be the 'signature' piece for the centre. The Dunboyne man was awarded the commission as a result of winning the Solstice international Composition Prize, which had attracted entries from all over the world. The North American premiere was performed by the Chautauqua Wind Quintet as part of the Logan Chamber Music Series at the famed Chautauqua Institute in New York in memory of Peter Cornell. Rounding off a whirlwind year, he worked with producer Noel Hogan (The Cranberries) writing and recording string arrangements for up-and-coming Irish band Seneca before finally sitting down to write the Hope Violin Concerto for Cora Venus Lunny. With the support of a prestigious 2010 Arts Council Bursary Award, they are currently collaborating on the piece and creating an exciting new work for the violin repertoire. A former Fulbright Scholar at the world-renowned UCLA Film Scoring Programme, Hope wasted no time in making his mark on music in film, orchestrating the Golden Globe-nominated score for Michael Mann's 'The Insider' as well as writing music for TV's 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' and 'It's A Guy Thing'. His music has been finding a home in both concert halls and cinemas throughout the world, being performed at events such as the Symposium of Brazilian Computer Music and the International Electro-Acoustic Music Festival of Cadiz or film festivals such as The Seattle and Boston International Film Festivals.