Educated at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, followed by four years at the Moscow Conservatory, Sacha Puttnam composes and arranges for movies, advertising, television, theatre and radio.
With diverse musical interests ranging from classical to rock and dance, he has conducted the Moscow State Orchestra as well as touring for several years with platinum selling rock band Bush.
Brought up in the film world, one of his earliest musical experiences was watching Paul Williams playing the original score for Bugsy Malone on the piano which he was receiving his own first lessons. Later, he was present as Vangelis created the theme music for the film Chariots of Fire, and Mark Knopfler was working on Local Hero and Cal.
“In that environment,” he says, “it was impossible not to be musically stimulated.”
Adding to his credentials and diversity Sacha worked alongside film composer Michael Kamen, composing some of the incidental music for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and collaborating with him on the score for Pat O’Connor’s film Inventing The Abbotts. He later wrote the score for Oscar nominated The Confessional, as well as Dennis Hopper’s The Keeper, along with additional music for Nick Love’s cult movie The Football Factory.
For BBC Radio Four he wrote the music for Sony Award winning adaptations of Bleak House, Q&A and A Suitable Boy, while in 2006 his first classical album Remasterpiece, recorded in collaboration with Chris Coco, was released by EMI.
In the last two years Puttnam has scored the movie Rising Tide for Northern Media, the animated feature Return to Rainspell Island for Hit, the feature documentary We are the People we’ve been Waiting For for New Moon and three dramas for the BBC. Six Suspects, Tokyo Murders and Assassins.
Alongside his film and radio work, Puttnam is currently producing solo piano transcriptions for an autumn release.
For more information on Sacha please visit his website,
Credits
FEATURE FILMS
Le Confessional
(Canal Plus)
Director: Robert Lepage
Oscar Nomination, Genie Award ‘Best Film’
Special Jury Prize – Cannes Film Festival
Return to Rainspell Island
(Hit Entertainment)
Director: Hiroshi Kawamata
The Keeper
(Peace Arch Films)
Director: Paul Lynch
Dolphins
(Carnaby Films)
Director: Mark Jay
Rising Tide
(Northern Media Films)
Director: Philip Shotton
Rising Tide 2
(Northern Media Films)
Director: Phil Shotton
Irwin and Fran
(Independent Films)
Director: Jordan Stone
Sentimental Education
(Wildshot Films)
Director: Christian Leigh
Football Factory
(Vertigo Films)
Director: Nick Love (Additional Score)
Goal 2
(Buena Vista)
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra (Additional Score)
We Are The People We’ve Been Waiting For
(New Moon)
Director: Daryl Goodrich
SHORT FILMS
Week in week out
(Graduation Film)
Director: Andrea Arnold
Milk
(Channel 4)
Director: Andrea Arnold
The Architect
(Royal College of Art)
Director: Luke Watson
Munich short film festival Best Film winner
Strong Language
(Independent)
Director: Simon Rumley
Different for Girls
(Independent)
Director: William Beaton
Tealeaves
(Graduation Film)
Director: Daniel Fontaine
The Meat Draw
(Independant)
Director: John Sheikh
Assassins
(BBC)
Director: John Dryden
Critical Eye
(Crossroads Films)
Director: Dan Nathan
ORCHESTRATION
Olympic Games ’96
Apollo’s Games
Composer Michael Kamen
Inventing the Abbots
Director: Pat O’Connor
Composer: Michael Kamen
Finished Symphony
(Hybrid, Wide Angle)
All Bob’s Women
Director: Russell Laby
Composer: Romy Padovano
RADIO DRAMA
Fatherland
(BBC Radio 4, Robert Harris)
John Dryden
Bleak House
(BBC Radio 4, Charles Dickens)
John Dryden
Sony radio award Gold ‘Best Drama’
A Handmaids Tale
(BBC Radio 4, Margaret Atwood)
John Dryden
A Suitable Boy
(BBC Radio 4, Vikram Seth)
John Dryden
The Cairo Trilogy
(BBC Radio 4, Naguib Mahfouz)
John Dryden
Sony Radio Award Bronze ‘Best Drama’
Q&A
BBC Radio 4, Meera Syal)
John Dryden
Sony Radio Award Gold ‘Best Drama’
My Name is Red
(BBC Radio 4, Orhan Pamu)
John Dryden
A Tokyo Murder
(BBC Radio 4)
John Dryden & Miriam Smith
Six Suspects
(BBC Radio 4)
John Dryden & Ayeesha Menon
Severed Threads
(BBC Radio 4)
John Dryden
DOCUMENTARY
We are the People we’ve been waiting for
(New Moon)
The Man who Shot Beckett
(RTE)
Director: David Bickley
The Berrydown Cairn
(Surreal Films)
Director: Jamie Morgan
The Films of Mitchell and Kenyon
(Archive, BFI)
TELEVISION
Nip and Tuck
(Warner Brothers)
Rainbow Magic
(Hit Entertainment)
International Cricket
(Sky Sports)
ALBUMS
Remasterpiece
(EMI Classics)
Heavy Mellow
(Distinctive)
Chris Coco
Next Wave
(Distinctive)
Chris Coco
Albatross EP
(Distinctive)
Chris Coco
Feel Free Live Good
(Big Chill)
Chris Coco
Wide Angle
(Hybrid, Avex UK)
Wider Angle (The Remixes)
(Hybrid, Avex UK)
The Science of Things
(Bush, Trauma/Universal)
Healing is Difficult
(Sia, Sony Music)
The Confessional
(Soundtrack, Attic)
Lost city folk and the grace reunion
(City Reverb, Independent)
Freedom of Speech
(Border Crossing, Cartel)
COMPILATIONS
Winter Chill
(Hed Candi)
Karma Collection
(Ministry of Sound)
Classical Chillout 2
(Sony)
Solar Spectrums
(Obsessive)
Private Party 2
(Crazy Diamond)
Spacenight Vol. 9
(Electrolux)
Pathaan’s Universal Sunset
(Altura)
Classical Comfort
(Edel Records)
Serve Chilled
(Hed Candi)
Nip and Tuck
(Nettwork America)
The Art of Chill
(Platipus/INgrooves)
Evidence E.P.
(Distinctive)
Missing
(El Records)
Ernie Lake
Es Vive Ibiza 2008
(Fierce Angel Records)
Independent Innovative Creative
(Various, Vital)
Pure Ibiza
(ilabel)
Compiled by Phil Mison
Summer Sessions 2
(Ministry of Sound)
All Your Life
(Psychonavigation Records)
Frequent Flier/Digital Collection
(Kinky Sweet Recordings)
Acoustic Chillout Double Pack
(ilabelweb.com)
Future Chill
(ilabelweb.com)
Puro Beach
(Volumen Cinque)
COMPUTER GAMES
Adventure Ecology
(Free-range, 2005)
Tiger Woods ‘Golf’
(EA Sports)
ART INSALLATION
The Crucifixion
Sebastian Horsley
COMMERCIALS
British Telecom
(Listen)
Director: Paul Weiland
N.F.U. Mutual x 2
Director: Fatima Andrade
Direct Line x 3
Director: David Connor
Nord bank x 2
Director: Jamie Lane
Volkswagen
Director: Fatima Andrade
Toyota
Director: David Krulik
Greenpeace
Director: Brenda Ramsay
TELEVISION IDENT
Beckett 100
(RTE)
International Cricket
(Sky Sports)
ONLINE ADVERTISING
Online Brochure
(Essential Travel Collection)
C.P.O.L.
(Profero/UK Government)