Biography
Joe Lewis is a classically trained composer and multi-instrumentalist, sound engineer and occasional music supervisor. Born in South Wales, Joe spent his formative years in an International school in Bahrain before moving back to the UK at the later stages of his education. Graduating from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2001, Joe primarily studied classical guitar under renowned concert guitarist John Mills. Ever since, he has worked from his studio, Dojo Studios, in London. Joe also holds an MA in Audio Production from Westminster University.
He has composed music for a wide range of clients ranging from news and documentary to high end advertising. Though Joe’s scores often revolve around small chamber ensembles, his music regularly incorporates sound design and various electronic components and techniques such as granular synthesis and creative dynamic processes. He has also continued to write and release electronic dance music of various genres and as held residencies with his duo, Refix, in two of London’s most acclaimed nightclubs - Ministry of Sound and Fabric.
A significant proportion of Joe’s work is in documentary and news. Since 2004, he has been a longterm collaborator with director Saeed Farouky as both a composer and location recordist. Working from places such as Lebanon and Egypt to the Arctic circle, has had a direct impact on Joe’s approach as a composer. Over the years, Joe’s scores have incorporated elements of world music such as the Indian kanartic traditions (India’s Missing Girls. BBC 2007) and electronic Nordic ambient (There Will be Some Who Will not Fear That Void, NRK 2014).
In 2011, Joe composed the music for the UK Promax award winning idents for TCM Europe. In addition, his 2014 work on the Norwegian funded experimental documentary “There Will be Some Who Will not Fear That Void” won Gold Medal/Jury Choice for Best Documentary Score at the Park City Film Awards. Most recently, he composed the music for the acclaimed documentary ‘Tell Spring Not to Come this Year’. Currently, available on Netflix worldwide, the feature length documentary premiered at Berlinale in 2015 to critical acclaim with the film being singled out for the Audience Choice award. The film went on to win the One World Media: Feature Documentary Award, where the judges stated that ‘the sparse beauty of the score enhances a film without rhetoric but huge soul’. Guardian/BBC film critic Mark Kermode also singled out Joe’s score as ‘lending the film powerful and suitable accompaniment’.
A selection of Joe’s work can be seen and heard at: www.dojostudios.com