David Long

David Long is a New Zealand composer, performer and producer. In 2016 he was commissioned by Orchestra Wellington to write I’ll Hum the First Few Bars for orchestra, electric guitar and robotics (working with Jim Murphy of the NZSM) which was accompanied by a video piece created by David Downes. He recently composed the score for an animated documentary,  25 April, by Leanne Pooley which was released in April 2016. David was the Creative New Zealand/Jack C. Richards Composer-in-Residence at the New Zealand School of Music 2014–15. In 2015 he composed the score for the documentary The Ground We Won by Chris Pryor and Miriam Smith.

In 2014 he composed the scores for Taking Stock, a UK comedy directed by Maeve Murphy that was released in September 2015 and Hot Air, a feature documentary by Alister Barry and Abi King-Jones on the politics of climate change. He also wrote his first score for a game; Stand Off, created by Theo Bayton and Rhys Clapcott. In 2013 he created the score for Beyond The Edge, a feature documentary on Ed Hillary’s ascent of Mount Everest directed by Leanne Pooley. It is a score combining orchestra, viola caipiras and feedback. It features performances by Riki Gooch (percussion), Richard Nunns (taonga puoro) and Natalia Mann (harp). Beyond the Edge premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2013. The soundtrack has been released by Rattle Records.

2015 also saw the release of O Potassium, the second album by The Labcoats, a six piece experimental group.

David has worked on all of Peter Jackson’s films of the last decade. In 2009 he composed additional score for Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones. For The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey he wrote (in collaboration with Plan 9 Music) ‘Misty Mountain’, a song for the dwarves that also features as the major theme in the score and was used as the basis for the credits song by Neil Finn. He wrote music and created musical sound design for Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong (also with Plan 9 Music).

In early 2013 David composed the score for Gardening With Soul that premiered in the Wellington Film Festival. In 2012 three films were released that he scored; Robert Sarkies’ Two Little Boys, Alyx Duncan’s The Red House and Dan Salmon’s Pictures of Susan (a feature documentary). In 2011 he scored Simon Pattison’s film Rest for the Wicked and in 2010 wrote the score for Stephen Sinclair’s Russian Snark.

David has had a long association with contemporary dance. He has written many pieces for New Zealand’s pre-eminent choreographer Douglas Wright. For the 2011 Auckland Arts Festival he composed the music for Wright’s dance show Rapt which toured to Holland in 2013. He has also written for Shona McCullagh and Raewyn Hill, among others. He has released 2 solo albums, Cross Creek and Slim Volume. He has also written for the New Zealand String Quartet and Stroma, a contemporary chamber orchestra.

Long was a founding member of the seminal New Zealand band the Mutton Birds with whom he made 3 albums over 7 years. He has also produced many albums for a wide variety of artists including Dave Dobbyn’s Available Light (2005), two albums for Barry Saunders, Red Morning (2005), and Zodiac (2009), Lucid 3’s Dawn Planes (2007) and Leila Adu’s Cherry Pie (2006) to name a few. He won Producer of the Year at the 2002 New Zealand Music Awards for Fur Patrol’s Pet.

David's profile on nzonscreen.com can be found here.