Ocean with David Attenborough

It was a huge honour to be asked to work on this film, released on Sir David’s 99th Birthday in 2025.  A powerful documentary film which explores the importance of the Earth’s oceans, the threats they face, and, crucially, the hope that exists for the future, it was directed by Toby Nowlan, Colin Butfield and Keith Scholey.  I first worked with Keith back in 2014 for the BBC series The Hunt, and from the moment he mentioned this project to me it was clear it was special.

It was very much a piece designed to bring about real change, showing for the first time the truth of the kind of deep sea trawling that has been going on for far too long.  It was important that the film carried an emotional power, and through conversation with Toby I became aware that the focus would be on the amazing images, Sir David’s peerless narration, and the music.  An early and crucial decision was made to forego the kind of conventional, speaker filling sound fx that are heard so often in Natural History films, and this left space for the music to both support and drive the narrative,  We wanted the score to feel immersive and emotional, and decided early on for there to be a focus on the human voice.  This gave me the opportunity to explore an idea that I’d discussed with my regular and hugely wonderful collaborator Lisa Hannigan over many years.  We had often talked of layering her voice in myriad ways to become the central character in a score and this project offered the chance to finally create a beautiful sung voice for the ocean.

This brought some challenges in that it was virtually impossible to demo the score as early as I would do normally to play to my directors, there being no way to simulate the kind of vocal treatments we were planning before actually experimenting with them.  However, fortunately they embraced the ideas with a huge amount of trust and support for which I was very grateful.  I wrote the music over the Christmas period of 2024, so that I could spend a couple of days with Lisa in early January 2025 to put our plans into action.   Further vocal sessions followed with another of my valued collaborators, John Smith, who had previously contributed to my score for Fury.  The result, combined with electronics and chamber orchestra, was a distinctive sounding score of which I am very proud, not least because of the impact the film has made in the months that have followed.  The film got widely seen by leaders all over the world, and, although its early days, there are signs of change that we can only hope continue amidst the chaos.  It was an honour to be part of one of the great Sir David Attenborough’s most powerful films.