Roger Goula is a London-based composer and multi-instrumentalist whose range of original works spans across albums, film scores, music for dance, TV, theatre, and art installation. Inspired by renaissance and baroque music, as well as minimalism, Roger’s music delves into an experimental approach of blending electronics with classical chamber and orchestral music through repetition of minimal elements and emotionally-transporting textures.
Roger has scored many award-winning films which have been presented at festivals such as Venice Film Festival, Toronto, Sundance, Tribeca and BFI amongst many others, and was also featured in the prestigious ASCAP Composers Spotlight at Sundance Film Festival 2018.
Roger has composed for numerous award-winning television programmes, including the BAFTA-winning BBC drama Killed By My Debt; the BAFTA-nominated BBC drama Against The Law, starring Daniel Mays; the final episodes of the crime drama series Inspector George Gently; the feature documentaries Diana: 7 Days and The Betrayed Girls both directed by Henry Singer, the BAFTA-winning BBC docudrama The Left Behind, and the ITV/Netflix flagship series The Ripper. Roger also collaborated with film & TV composer Harry Escott on the score for the ITV fantasy-drama series The Frankenstein Chronicles starring Sean Bean.
Roger has scored many renowned feature documentaries such as the BIFA-nominated Versus: The Life And Films Of Ken Loach; the BAFTA-nominated feature The Hard Stop from director George Amponsah; and the BIFA Winner Next Goal Wins, which was met with critical acclaim, obtaining a score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. In 2020, Roger composed a beautiful score to accompany the documentary profile of the veteran Swedish director, Roy Andersson, Being A Human Person.
Roger composed the score for Oscar-nominated All That Breathes, directed by Shaunak Sen. The documentary premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2022, where it was awarded the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize under the documentary category, and went on to win the L’œil d’or Award at Cannes Film Festival.
Roger’s latest work includes the Channel 4 factual drama series Partygate, exploring the story of Covid from inside 10 Downing Street, which debuted in October; the 4-part Netflix Original docu- series Till Murder Do Us Part: Soering vs. Haysom, exploring the new insights surrounding the true crime case of Jens Söring’s conviction of the 1985 murders of his then-girlfriend’s parents, streaming from 1st November; and upcoming horror-thriller feature What Remains Of Us, starring Kit Harington.
In 2016, Roger released his debut solo album Overview Effect via Cognitive Shift. The album was celebrated by critics with BBC 6 Music’s Mary Anne Hobbs describing the album as “mind-blowing”. Multiple tracks from the album have been synced widely across various artistic platforms including The Last Race, the feature film by acclaimed American visual artist and filmmaker Michael Dweck, premiering at Sundance Film Festival in 2018. Roger’s second album, Ecosystems, was released in June 2023.
Having built up an impressive portfolio as a composer for fringe theatre, short films, and contemporary dance, Roger collaborated with prodigy dancer Dickson Mbi in partnership with the Akran Khan Dance Company on numerous choregraphies including DUENDE which premiered at Sadlers Wells in 2018, and most recently ENOWATE which was presented at the Barbican Theatre in late 2021 and was performed at Sadler’s Wells in October 2022.
Malgré la formation de Roger Goula en guitare classique et jazz, c’était son talent en composition qui l’a démarqué et lui a remporté des bourses de la PRS Foundation for New Music et The Alan Hawksaw Foundation pendant son séjour à la NFTS, où il a étudié pour son Master en composition pour film.
Ayant construit un portfolio impressionnant pendant son travail collaboratif en tant que compositeur de théâtre ‘fringe’, courts-métrages et projets de dance contemporaine, Roger a plus récemment créé les bandes originales pour un nombre de courts-métrages distinctifs et a contribué à des documentaires notables tels que Best Of Men et Britain In A Day et, l’année passée, le film acclamé par la critique Shock Head Soul, pour le réalisateur Simon Pummell. Dans une critique du film dans Variety, la musique de Roger a été décrite comme ayant une ‘originalité frappante‘.
En 2014, Roger a composé la musique pour le film documentaire ‘Next Goal Wins‘. Maintenant sorti en DVD, le film fut couronné d’un succès d’estime et 100% ‘fresh’ par rottentomatoes.com. Depuis lors, Roger a composé les bandes-son pour le dernier projet de Simon Pummell, Identicals; Tiger House, un thriller du réalisateur Tom Daley; et Roger a collaboré avec Harry Escott sur la bande-son pour The Frankenstein Chronicles avec Sean Bean pour ITV.
Les commissions les plus récentes de Roger comprennent le long-métrage Jet Trash pour le réalisateur Charles Belleville, le documentaire long-métrage Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach, et deux films différents à propos de la fusillade policière de Mark Duggan en 2011; Lawful Killing, un docudrame BBC1, et The Hard Stop, un documentaire long-métrage acclamé réalisé par George Amponsah.
Plus récemment, Roger a composé la musique pour le long-métrage Access All Areas pour le directeur Bryn Higgins, the documentaire long-métrage Diana: 7 days pour BBC1, Against The Law, un documentaire drama sur la légalisation de l’homosexualité en Grande-Bretagne avec Daniel Mays, et les épisodes finaux de Inspector George Gently pour BBC1.
En novembre 2016, Roger a sorti son premier album sur le nouveau label Cognitive Shift. L’album a reçu d’excellents commentaires et a été joué sur 6Music et Radio 3, parmi d’autres stations.
Roger a récemment composé la musique pour la deuxième saison de The Frankenstein Chronicles avec Sean Bean et travaille actuellement sur plusieurs docudrames pour la BBC.