KIM IS AN ACCOMPLISHED COMPOSER with a wide experience of writing music for film, television, theatre, multimedia and concert stage. His latest work includes the score for Credo, a horror feature for Alto Films, two shorts for the London film co-operative OTT Films and 4 Trees, a piece for flute, clarinet, violin and ‘cello. Earlier scores include critically acclaimed independent feature Pink Pumpkins At Dawn, as well as prize-winning shorts B-Movie Status, The Method and Skin Flick.

In film, his work includes composing and playing on Credo, a horror film set in London, and on Pink Pumpkins At Dawn, a coming of age drama set in New Jersey. Kim also worked on Still Crazy, assisting Clive Langer, and on a variety of projects for the Directors Guild of Great Britain, including music for theatre workshops, a series of Shakespeare workshops and the DGGB Showreel. His work in short films includes B Movie Status, a short horror film, The Method, a film about films in a dystopian future, and Skin Flick, a comedy about aspirations and porn films, all three of which won prizes. He has also scored many other shorts, ranging in content from serious drama, through comedy, sci-fi, and even a couple of forays into musicals. Most directors who have worked with Kim have done so more than once. Kim’s agenda in film and media work is to provide the director with what they want – the music is just a constituent part, not more important than the whole. As he said recently “I would rather people left the cinema saying ‘That was a really good film’ than ‘That was really good music’. Of course, I’d prefer them to say both!”

Kim’s work is designed to comfort and disturb in equal measure, and in order to achieve this he mixes conventional instruments with studio effects and unconventional sounds – for Credo he recorded sounds on location to build into a percussion set that was used throughout the score, and for other shorts, for example, he has used only voices, altered and edited, or only a single piano. For other pieces he has used found sound, recorded sound, and recycled material to obtain the required mood. He also has a growing collection of strange and wonderful instruments (a duduk, a waterphone and an autoharp, for example) that have been used on many occassions. He has also provided music for documentaries, television, video and multimedia projects, along with sound design and music for theatre, including work for the Writers Guild and Amnesty International.

Kim studied Media Music at the London Film School in the early 1990s and has since worked with many LFS alumni on projects ranging from 2 minute trailers through to the full score for Credo. Before attending the Film School, Kim was involved in all kinds of bands, having been rescued from prog rock by Dr Feelgood in the mid-seventies. He plays guitar, saxophone and keyboards, and is accomplished in programming effects, samplers and automation in Logic Pro software. He is widely experienced in studio techniques, having his own recording facilities near to Heathrow Airport, to the west of London, and has recorded Nick Lowe, Jeannette Wintersson and Rat Scabies in his studio.