Simon Walker (composer)

Simon Walker (born 1961 in Sydney, NSW) is an Australian composer of numerous film and television soundtracks including For the Term of His Natural Life. The first available soundtrack of his music was The Wild Duck on Southern Cross Records, and other releases include his AFI Award-nominated score for Annie's Coming Out and The Last of the Mohicans on the 1M1 Records label.

Early life

Having met recording producer Philip Powers in 1980, they collaborated in 1988 to conceive 1M1 Records, an Australian record label dedicated to Australian Music CD releases with a focus on Australian film soundtrack recordings. The first project was of Walker's own score to the Australian TV miniseries, For the Term of His Natural Life.

Career

Two of Walker's contemporary classical compositions, the Bartokesque Binary and his eerie Deep Space were released on the compact disc Music for Pianos, Percussion and Synthesizers. This was a concept album designed by Walker and Powers to explore the territory of synthesizers to the extent they could be utilised since their inception up to 1989. The four other Australian film composers who wrote works for this album were Guy Gross (scored The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert), Philip Powers, Mark Isaacs and Chris Neal (scored the film version of Emerald City (play), Ground Zero and episodes of Farscape).

The Sydney Morning Herald classical music critic, Roger Covell, wrote in his review in 1990 that "Walker's 'Binary' has a feeling of severity and power to it... The disc is a useful message from composers who are in the process of working out their place in Australian music. More messages of a similar kind would be welcome."

G.P. theme

His theme for the ABC series G.P., performed by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, has arguably become his most familiar piece of music in the film industry and one of the most recognisable Australian themes ever.

Death

Simon died in June 2010.