Faber Music is thrilled to announce the signing of an exclusive publishing agreement with the BAFTA-winning composer, Jessica Curry.
Best-known for her choral music and for her music for computer games, Jessica is also co-founder of the renowned games company, The Chinese Room.
The Washington Post has described Jessica's music as 'stupendous' and it has been performed in major venues across the world including The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Sydney Opera House, The Barbican, MOMI New York and Sage Gateshead. It is often staged in unusual spaces too, most notably when her Perpetual Light: Requiem for an Unscorched Earth launched in London's Old Vic Tunnels.
Jessica's music receives extensive airplay on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM, where she is also a presenter, hosting 'High Score', a Saturday night show about video game music. The show has had an astounding response. It is the most listened to show on Classic FM's catch-up service and has helped boost listenership among under 35s by 30% according to recent RAJAR figures.
In March 2016 Jessica was awarded a place on British Council's FAMLAB (Film, Archive and Music Lab week). In conjunction with PRS for Music Foundation, HOME and BFI, the British Council. In 2016 she was named as one of Gamesindustry.biz's People of the Year and has recently been named one of the Top 30 Women in Games by MCV. She was also a finalist in the 2017 Women in Games awards in the Creative Impact category, and a finalist in the Hospital Club awards in the Games and Creative Industry categories. In 2016 she won the coveted MOSMA award at the Malaga Film Festival.
Looking ahead, September 2017 sees the launch of a new game, So Let Us Melt, featuring Jessica's original choral soundtrack in performance by London Voices.
'The Durham Hymns'
The recipient of a PRS Foundation Women Make Music grant, Jessica's large scale choral and brass band work, The Durham Hymns, (a collaboration with Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy to mark the centenary of The Battle of the Somme) premiered at Durham Cathedral in July 2016. She has also enjoyed recent choral commissions from the London Gay Men's Chorus and by Glasgow Madrigirls.
'Everybody's Gone to the Rapture'
Her BAFTA-winning music for acclaimed PS4 title Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (atmospherically set in a deserted Shropshire village) was named Soundtrack of the Year by MOJO magazine and sat in the Top 10 of both the Official and Classic FM charts for several weeks. The score won Best Score at the Emotional Games Awards, won four GANG awards in San Francisco, including Best Soundtrack and also won Best Audio and Best Performer as well as Best Music at the BAFTA's 2016. The Guardian praised her 'gorgeous orchestral score' and it was voted into the Classic FM Hall of Fame in 2016.
A suite for choir and orchestra from Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is also regularly performed in concerts in Europe and the USA.
'Dear Esther'
Jessica wrote the music for the Hebridean-set, genre-defying game Dear Esther, which won awards for Best Audio at the TIGA's (The Independent Games Developers' Association), a GANG (Game Audio Network Guild) award and nominations for Best Audio at the BAFTAs. The music went on a worldwide orchestral tour as part of 'Replay: Symphony of Heroes'. The sold-out Dear Esther Live, where the game was played real-time alongside musicians and BAFTA-nominated actor Oliver Dimsdale premiered at The Barbican in 2017 to great acclaim.
Dear Esther Live embarks on a UK tour later this year, with 12 performances commencing at Glasgow's Sonica Festival on 3 November.
Selected Works
Perpetual Light: Requiem for an Unscorched Earth (2011) - choir, film and installation
Dear Esther (2012) - video game soundtrack
Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs (2013) - video game soundtrack
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (2015) - video game soundtrack
The Durham Hymns (2016) - choir and brass band
Dear Esther Live (2017) - voice, piano, string quartet and electronics
So Let Us Melt (2017) - video game soundtrack
Selected Press
'Musically, the piece was rich and ethereal throughout. An exquisite mix of atonal and tonal music, Perpetual Light was a dark, tormented piece, punctuated by moments of brightness. Curry's music did more than dig up the ghosts of our past; it shed light and hope upon the future of humanity.'
Alison Karlin, Bachtrack
'Rapture includes a soundtrack that perfectly augments the game's atmosphere of melancholy and futility. Rapture's ambience always sits you on the edge of sorrow, with the music never quite intruding in an obtrusive way, but pulling you in just close enough to dip your toes into the game world's melancholy. Its sounds make it hard for you to not feel like Shropshire itself: cold, alone, and utterly empty. A lonely, beautiful void.'
Gamespot
"Jessica Curry's phenomenal musical score deftly waxes and wanes along your journey, setting an atmosphere and progression with varied instrumentation. Magnificent choral arrangements punctuate key moments, and we couldn't help but stop and bask in their glory."
Game Trailers (Everybody's Gone to the Rapture)