visual arts composer
London-born Dougal KEMP began adapting his music to visual art by bringing music to plays, working on both live music and pre-recorded scores. Heading towards other art forms came quite naturally as the experiences in theatres helped him understand the stakes of bringing out different emotions to a story.
Dougal followed a Film Music Master's degree in Lyon (France) before winning in 2019 the award for the Best Original Music on an Animation Movie at the Original SoundTrack Challenge in Clermont-Ferrand (France). He received in 2021 the SABAM Award for Best Original Composition by a Young International Composer (Belgium), and in 2022 the Best Original Music on a Documentary Movie at the Original SoundTrack Challenge in Rochefort (France). He is frequently invited to different festivals such as the 3e Personnage at Marseille, the Talent Village at Les Arcs Film Festival or Les Soeurs Jumelles at Rochefort.
« Ever since I started composing, I've been exploring how to create images, how to tell stories with music, and which techniques could be used to recall different sensations and emotions. Therefore, I have followed my music and drama studies in parallel, considering that the vocabulary and the methods used are, in my opinion, very similar ; both arts enhance and complement each other.
I have thereby always searched, in my film and drama projects, to enrich my music with the images and to feed the images with the music, to aim for complete coherence within the ideas and the aesthetics.
I also cultivate my interest in the study of different styles of music to regularly enlarge my inspirations and always be able to answer with ease to the different project demands. »
After graduating from the Lyon National Superior Conservatory of Music & Dance (CNSMDL) in 2022, Dougal KEMP started working alongside french-tunisian composer Amine BOUHAFA as orchestrater on the TV series Paddington and as music editor on the Netflix series The Exchange. He also frequently works for the Candlelight Concerts by Fever as arranger and orchestrator, as well as writing original scores to short films and documentaries.
Please feel free to me, we may even be able to meet up for a cup of tea...
Photos Hugo SICLIER
Film Awards
Coupeur De Route - Official Selection - Best French Short Film / Premiers Plans d’Angers 2023
Une de Perdue - Best Emerging Talent Film / Festival Stop Motion Montréal 2020
Dans Les Bois - First Prize / Festival Court Mais Bon 2019
Dans Les Bois - Best Student Short Bronze Winner / Queen Palm 2018
Zut! - Mapping Workshop / Fête des lumières 2018 & Fête d’Epinal 2019