British composer and producer James Everingham, Los Angeles-based Emmy-winning composer Adam Lukas and Oscar-winner Hans Zimmer recently co-wrote the score for the BBC Natural History Unit series Frozen Planet II as part of the composer collective Bleeding Fingers Music.
They were tasked with creating almost six hours of music for Frozen Planet II, all delivered in 5.1 surround. Let’s find out more about their process…
L-R: Adam Lukas and James Everingham
Before we did into the series, tell us a bit about your background.
Adam Lukas: My country of origin is Austria. I was raised in a little village that is very similar to the one in Sound of Music. I was also born into a musical family, with my mom being a singer of Austrian folk music and a composer of jingles. My passion for music was first ignited by playing video games as a child.
To my parents’ great chagrin, I would play for hours on end, being fascinated by how well the music worked with the action depicted on the screen. I relocated to Vienna as a teen to pursue a musical education. After spending about 10 years in this incredible city of music, I was invited to go to Los Angeles, where I have been working with Bleeding Fingers Music for the past three years.
James Everingham: I grew up in Bristol in the west of England and had a lot of exposure to music through my childhood. As I grew older, it became apparent to me that music for film and TV was the perfect combination of my passions for both filmmaking and music. I’ve been working with Bleeding Fingers for many years, but around three years ago I moved to Los Angeles.
Coincidentally, Bristol is the home of the BBC Natural History Unit, so it’s been wonderful to return to the national history shows I grew up watching… and of course to have the privilege of scoring the voice of the legend that is Sir David Attenborough.
How did you get involved with Frozen Planet II?
Lukas: Even though our company has worked with the BBC in the past on programs like Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II, we still have to make a blind pitch for every project. We submitted our pitch as a group and ultimately were fortunate to be selected to work on Frozen Planet II. I can still remember feeling equally intimidated and excited. I’m grateful that Russell Emanuel, CEO of Bleeding Fingers and score producer for Frozen Planet II, trusted James and me to collaborate with Hans on this high-profile show.
Can you walk us through the needs of the project?
Lukas: What we would do first is sit down and have a conversation about what the show’s sound could be. In collaboration with Spitfire Audio, we then created Fractured Strings, a custom-designed toolkit that would become the sonic backbone of the Frozen Planet II score.
We wanted to have humanity represented in the score as well, and we found a perfect collaborator and featured artist in Norwegian singer Aurora. Once we agreed on a palette of sounds, we began work on thematic material and would closely collaborate with Hans, Russell and the BBC to develop first-tone ideas and themes.
Adam Lukas
Ultimately, we wanted the audience to be pleased in terms of what they expect from a natural history show while also offering them something fresh and new. The soundtrack was recorded in Wales with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and in Vienna with the Synchron Stage Orchestra.
What gear did you use?
Everingham: Early on in the scoring process, we built extensive musical toolkits, including atmospheres created with an old reel-to-reel tape machine. We recorded multiple passes of solo cello to tape before recording back into Cubase in reverse at low speed and through a series of guitar pedals. This gave us textures that were familiar and resemblant to stringed instruments yet uneasy and twisted — a processing technique we applied across the score that helped set the stage for the darkness of the climate crisis portrayed on-screen. The score features a full symphonic orchestra but also many synthetic elements, and we used synthesizers and Eurorack modules from Moog, Korg, Roland and Arturia. We also recorded upright piano and metallophones in-house, using a combination of microphones from Neumann, Josephson and Mojave through preamps from Heritage Audio, Universal Audio and Focusrite, using primarily RME converters. The Mojave MA-301fets specifically has become a go-to in our recording arsenal.
James Everingham
What were some of the interesting or unique challenges you faced on Frozen Planet II?
Everingham: We were privileged to work with talented musicians from across the globe, including orchestras in Cardiff and Vienna, a choir in Reykjavík, soloists in Los Angeles and the incredible vocalist Aurora — recorded in Norway by her longtime collaborator, Magnus Skylstad.
With almost six hours of music in Frozen Planet II, all delivered in 5.1 surround, this presented the technical and logistical challenge of preserving vast multi-track recordings in a very fast-paced and fluid workflow. Fortunately, the expertise of score mixer Tyson Lozensky, music editor Jake Schaefer and our technical teams at Bleeding Fingers made this a smooth process that allowed Hans, Adam and me to focus purely on the music and the incredible imagery from the BBC.
Where can we follow you on social media?
Lukas: @adamlukasmusic on Instagram and @AdamLukas_music on Twitter.
Everingham: You can find me on Instagram and Twitter @JamesEveringham.
