MARK
SUMMERELL
Hi, I’m Mark, a composer, sound designer, and software developer originally from Bristol, now based in London. I've composed music for Emmy-nominated TV shows and am currently scoring my first feature film. I spent seven years at Spitfire Audio, creating audio workflow tools and sample libraries used by some of the world’s leading composers.
Various works.
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Film & TV
I've composed music for Emmy-nominated TV shows aired in the UK and internationally on networks including HBO Max, Discovery, National Geographic, Paramount+, and Disney+. Here’s a selection of my recent projects:
| Format | Project | Details | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feature | Ehh, it's a secret | In Post | - |
| TV | Billy & Dom Eat the World | Coming Soon | - |
| TV | Pirates: Behind the Legends | 8x60min, National Geographic | 2024 |
| TV | Conquistadors: The Rise and Fall | 8x60min, Apple TV / History Channel | 2023 |
| TV | The Frontier | 6x60min, Paramount+ - Emmy nominated series | 2023 |
| Short | Letter Eight | Moon Rabbit Productions | 2022 |
| TV | Fantastic Friends S1&2 | 6x60min, HBO | 2022 |
| TV | Vikings: The Rise and Fall | 6x60min, National Geographic - Emmy nominated series | 2022 |
| TV | Plane Crash Recreated | 10x60min, PBS & National Geographic | 2021 |
| TV | Disasters Engineered S1&2 | 20x40min, Disney+ - Emmy nominated series | 2019 |
Stratus
I was the lead programmer on Spitfire Audio's Stratus, created in collaboration with Ólafur Arnalds. Stratus is a sample instrument based on recordings of "sophisticated MIDI algorithms programmed to trigger a mix of straight and syncopated rhythmic patterns of notes, on two identical self-playing pianos." These recordings were then positioned on a three-dimensional grid within a custom-built Kontakt engine.
I'm immensely proud of what the team and I achieved with this project, handling everything from GUI mockups and complex KSP scripting logic to meticulous sample editing and programming, to faithfully recreate and significantly expand on the original Stratus software developed by Halldór Eldjárn for Ólafur’s pianos.
Blooper
🚧 Currently under development: a lightweight tone generator for Mac built in Swift.
Spitfire Audio
I spent seven years at Spitfire Audio, developing sample libraries and audio tools used by some of the world’s top composers and millions of musicians globally.
During my time there, I edited and programmed instrument recording sessions into playable software instruments, created unique sounds using custom audio processing, and developed bespoke workflow applications (using Python, Electron & JUCE) to simplify managing, editing and processing millions of audio files.
I had the privilege of collaborating with renowned studios and artists, including Abbey Road, AIR Studios, BBC Maida Vale, Hans Zimmer, Eric Whitacre, and Ólafur Arnalds.
LINKS
LABS: Textural Pads
In the 2020 lockdown, having fled London with my partner to shelter in my childhood home, I created a free sample instrument pack as part of LABS.
At the time, it was a nice distraction - a challenge to create interesting, complex sounds from the few instruments I had available in the house I grew up in: a kalimba, a bass guitar, my partner's vocals, and my brother’s broken cello. We played them in all sorts of weird ways (bowing the bass, scraping the cello with coins, dropping random items on the kalimba) and I transformed these sounds using “stochastic” granular processing, finally layering them together to create interesting sci-fi inspired textures.
This sample pack has become a personal time capsule of that surreal period spent hiding from the world with my loved ones, creating sounds from whatever we could get our hands on. It’s available for free and I always love hearing what people create with it!
LINKS
Web Design
I spent a lot of my time at Spitfire learning JavaScript to build Electron apps for internal tools. Keen to keep these skills sharp, I designed and built the website you're currently visiting.
CONTACT
Email me at: mark@marksummerell.com
