Eminently adaptable, Craig Armstrong won the Charles Lucas prize and the Harvey Lohr scholarship for composition at the Royal Academy of Music in 1981, and 12 months later was named Young Jazz Musician of the Year. Paired with a refusal to dismiss any form of music, his multifaceted skills have enabled him to move between genres and apply the same rigorous standards of taste and appreciation.

His skills as an orchestrator and arranger have gilded releases by the likes of Massive Attack and Madonna, but he is most in demand as a composer of film scores, where his ability to match contemporary sounds and classic arrangements for modern audiences is highly treasured by directors such as Baz Luhrmann, Phillip Noyce and Richard Curtis. Film Works collects together excerpts from some of his best known scores, including the swooning balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet , the richly exotic theme to the remake of The Quiet American and his rearrangements of a brace of Moulin Rouge’s popular standards. The dark, threatening tones of The Bone Collector demonstrate his ability to mix strings with electronica, while Glasgow Love Theme, a home-town tribute, multiplies exponentially the emotional depth of Love Actually.

Mike Pattenden