Ben Salisbury

Ivor Novello Award winning and Emmy nominated composer Ben Salisbury is one of the country’s leading film and TV composers, with credits including Alex Garland’s Oscar winning film Ex Machina and Annihilation, Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire starring Brie Larson, Beyonce: Life is But a Dream, and Netflix’s Black Mirror. Most recently, Ben has scored Claire Oakley’s film Make Up, the feature film Luce, starring Octavia Spencer and Naomi Watts, both series of Hanna for Amazon Studios and NBC Universal, and Devs, Alex Garland’s sci-fi drama series for Hulu.

Equally as well known for his exquisite orchestral writing, and a prolific name, too, in the highly influential Bristol band scene (he is a member of the bands Drokk with Geoff Barrow and Dolman with Scott Hendy), Ben has proved time again that he’s a supremely talented, multi-faceted composer, able to adapt to the demands of any project.

Ben won a 2016 Ivor Novello Award for his score to Ex Machina. His nominations include a an EMMY for his 007-influenced music for The Widlife On One, and an ASCAP and 2 World Soundtrack Awards nominations, also for Ex Machina. He won Best Music Video Award at The Missoula International Wildlife Film Festival for his score for Natural Tracks; and further awards for Natural World-Transylvania at the Montana International Wildlife Film Festival and for Nature’s Great Events at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival.

Ben has scored over 50 natural history films – including the last 3 of David Attenborough’s ‘Life …’ series: Life In The Undergrowth, the 2008 BAFTA winning series Life In Cold Blood, and The Life of Mammals, which Sir David himself has described as ‘one of the best scores there has been on any programme I have narrated.’ As part of the celebrations for the re-opening of Bristol’s Colston Hall in 2009, Ben’s music for Nature’s Great Events, co-composed with Barnaby Taylor, was performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra, introduced and compered by David Attenborough, and received outstanding reviews in the media. Other natural history credits include Ocean Giants, Nature’s Great Events, The Nature of Britain, Congo and the Making Waves strand of 8 ‘behind the scenes’ programmes that accompanied the award winning The Blue Planet series.

Deeply rooted in the renowned Bristol band scene, Ben, as co-writer and arranger, was an integral part of Malachai’s highly praised 2nd album, Return To The Ugly Side. His critically acclaimed writing partnership with Portishead’s Geoff Barrow (with whom he co-scored Ex Machina, Annihilation and Free Fire) resulted in the release of their 2012 album, DROKK: Music Inspired By Mega-City One, described by The Quietus as ‘jaw dropping… one of the heaviest and most intensely atmospheric records of the year’. Ben also co-wrote and arranged tracks for The Beekeepers debut album, Apiculture, and was the string arranger on the Boca 45 album Vertigo Sounds. Most recently he worked alongside Portishead ’s Adrian Utley and Geoff Barrow on a new album by Joe Volk, Happenings and Killings, released in 2016 on Glitterhouse Records, and has released a co-written album with Malachia’s Scott Hendy under the name Dolman, praised by Crack magazine as an ‘impressive exercise in sonic muscle flexing’.