Grossman's War BBC Radio 4

Vassili Grossman’s Stalingrad, aired on BBC Radio 4 30Nov & 1Dec2019.
Music by John Hardy, composed & recorded in 2011 for 'Life & Fate'

including Musicians:

Stacey Blythe - Accordion;

Max Pownall - Hammer Dulcimer;

Olly Wilson-Dickson - Violin.

Solo harp Hinterland

The title theme for crime drama Hinterland has been arranged in a special version for solo harp.

The theme is also available in a new version for solo piano. Buy the sheet music now.

Get the original soundtrack album.

John Hardy's music in concert

John Hardy - by Jody Daunton

October sees two performances of music by composer John Hardy: by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and in a portrait concert for John at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.

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The 'blue letters' sent by John's mother from Tanganyika in the 1950s, describing her adventures

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"The first movement is her arrival there, a dangerous and rough journey, at one point she inadvertently walked through an area patrolled by lions" - Tanzania in the 1950s

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales will play Blue Letters from Tanganyika in their concert Welsh Foundations 1,  which explores the work of Welsh composers over the last century. The concert takes place at BBC Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff on 18th October.
Tickets at http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ew4gwh.

Blue Letters from Tanganyika was inspired by the adventures described by John's mother in letters she wrote home during her time travelling across East Africa as a teacher in the 1950s. “What I did was to take some of them and use them as the basis for a sort of tone poem,” explains John, “describing in music some of the colour and drama of her time there.”

The 18-minute piece is split into four movements, each based on a different part of her travels.

“The first movement is her arrival there, a dangerous and rough journey, at one point she inadvertently walked through an area patrolled by lions; the second movement is a scherzo which describes travelling on a lake, sometimes calm and tranquil and other times stormy; the third describes the calm and peace of the very long and dark African nights near the Equator and then the last movement is an on-safari finale.”

Find out more about the story and listen to the music on John's website.

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Composer John Hardy

Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama are producing a special portrait concert, called The Music of John Hardy, on 5th October. The concert will include extracts from John's music for the 1918 film The Life Story Of David Lloyd George, performed live as the film is screened. 

Also in the concert is Cofiwch Orovela/Remember Orovela, a piece by John inspired by "an ancient Georgian folk song which I found a recording of, sung, unaccompanied, by an old woman - it is strange and beautiful. Then I later arranged this semi-neo-Baroque piece for three solo violins, with small ensemble, for the Singh Family of Llandybie... for me the singing seems to contain all the ancient and modern sorrows of the world, all the loss, all the grief. Yet with a fairly brisk Baroque/modern accompaniment, there is an exuberance to the mix of ingredients too."

The concert takes place on 5th October at Dora Stoutzker Hall, Cardiff. Get more information and tickets from RWCMD.

Welsh noir Hinterland back on BBC

Acclaimed Welsh detective series Hinterland is on BBC TV from Saturday 27th August 2016. It goes out at 9:30pm - see more at the BBC website. 

Described as "surely one of the loveliest soundtracks to grace a crime drama" by the Radio Times, the complete music for Hinterland is available to buy now on iTunes, Amazon or direct from the artist. 

Discover more about how John Hardy Music composed the music for Hinterland on their minisite, or create your own soundtrack for a scene from the show using specially created ingredients from the original score. 

MILE END film wins in NYC

It's great to see thriller feature MILE END continuing to make waves in festivals across the world, recently winning Best Narrative Feature at the New York City Independent Film Festival.

The soundtrack by Ed Scolding was nominated for Best Original Composition - Feature Film Score at the 2016 Music + Sound Awards, and we'll be releasing it later this year. Listen to a track now.

MILE END director Graham Higgins at the NYC Independent Film Festival 2016, with the prize for Best Narrative Feature.

Create your own noir soundtrack

BBC Connected and John Hardy Music have made a new online app where you create your own soundtrack to a scene from crime drama Hinterland, using elements of the original score.

Discover it now at BBC Connected.

"People can get creative using a simple interface that allows them to layer together individual elements of the original soundtrack. The Hinterland logo has been made interactive, where each letter triggers a short sound segment called a 'stem' when clicked or tapped. These stems can then be layered upon one another to create an atmospheric background to the drama sequence. Playing around with the music like this, you really start to see how important it is to creating the feeling of mystery and suspense that Hinterland is known for!"
Suzy Shorthouse, BBC Connected.

Visit Wales campaign soundtrack

Check out the new £4million tourism campaign featuring original music by John Hardy Music!

Watch the films and learn about the "making of".

Hinterland Series 2 shows over Christmas

The second series of award-winning Welsh detective drama Hinterland will be shown from Wednesday 23rd December on BBC One Wales. The series will be out on BBC Four in Spring 2016.

The acclaimed soundtrack for Series 1 is available in our shop now. The soundtrack for Series 2 will be released in Spring 2016.

John Hardy features on BBC Radio 3 Sound of Cinema

"Opera is an opportunity to move outside the box."

John joined Matthew Sweet to discuss the deep connections between opera and film music on BBC Radio 3's Sound of Cinema, live from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama as part of the BBC's coverage of Cardiff Singer of Year.

Find out more about the programme, or listen to John's score for oscar-nominated film Hedd Wyn, discussed in the programme.

'Deceive yourself' with the Mile End film soundtrack

Catch the first taste of Ed Scolding's powerful score for the psychological thriller Mile End.

The film premieres on Saturday 3rd October at Raindance Festival, London, and is nominated for Best UK Feature: "the actors’ performance is matched by the score, which deftly conveys all that remains unspoken and sets the perfect mood for this twisted tale.”

Speaking about the score, composer Ed said:

"I worked really closely with Graham [director & writer] to create music that really told the story of the characters and the action. He originally came to me because he liked my concert music, which made me feel I could really push the boat out and explore complex music, before refining everything to work with the pictures.

"It’s a powerful film with a lot of depth - there’s a lot going on psychologically, particularly with the main character Paul. For example there are some running sequences where there’s lots going on inside Paul’s head - there’s a background sense of him having always felt like an outsider, never quite fitting in, but he’s starting to move beyond that, exploring something new, finding calm and healing.

"That kind of situation means there’s space for music to be in the foreground, and also a clear direction for what they music needs to say."

The full soundtrack album will be released in 2016.

Gregorian chant from Pluscarden Abbey

We're thrilled to announce a partnership with Pluscarden Abbey, a Catholic Benedictine monastery with an international reputation for Gregorian chant.

Regularly recorded by BBC Radio 3, the whole community of monks sing the chant in Latin several times every single day, with historically-informed innovation in the music lead by members of the community and experts from Europe.

Previously only available on site or through printed mail order, Ffin Records will be working with the monks to bring their extraordinary music to a wider public.

Mile End Official Trailer

The trailer has been launched for suspense drama MILE END, written and directed by Graham Higgins, starring Alex Humes, Mark Arnold and Heidi Agerholm Balle.

All music for the film and trailer is by Ed Scolding, out soon on Ffin Records.

Celebrating Patagonia 150

We're joining the celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of Welsh settlement in Argentina, in Patagonia. As a young label, one of our key early releases was Celtica Latina by TV star, singer and songwriter René Griffiths, who was born of Welsh ancestors in Patagonia.

In Celtica Latina, Griffiths combined his musical backgrounds, inspirations and languages from Wales and South America. Featuring on BBC Radio 3 Late Junction and BBC World Service World of Music, the album helped Griffiths cement his name as the quintessential Welsh-Patagonian musician.

"The music style is a Patagonian hybrid of Latin Argentine rhythms with Celtic traditional melodies. The CD includes some well-known traditional songs, along with original compositions written by Griffiths, which demonstrate a rich poetic vocabulary in Spanish and Welsh."
Western Mail

"Welsh traditional music cross-fertilised with Argentine rhythms... his music reflects his twin cultural heritage"
BBC Radio 3 Late Junction

Read more about Griffiths' life in his autobiography, Ramblings of a Patagonian.