Hannes De Maeyer

Hannes De Maeyer is one of Belgium's most versatile composers, best known for his collaboration with director duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Gangsta, Black) and his score to the recent ITV prime time drama Professor T, starring Ben Miller. His work ranges from contemporary electronic scores with pop and hip hop influences, to rich, orchestral and symphonic works.

The Cinematic Journal comments on De Maeyer’s work: “Belgian composer Hannes De Maeyer is hands down one of Europe’s most versatile composers. One need look no further than his gorgeous soundtrack for the Belgian war drama ‘Torpedo (U-235)', which summons the flair of old Hollywood war scores; or ‘Gangsta’, a thriller imbued in 80s nostalgia with its old-school electronic sonic world; or the tense soundscape he crafted for the Amsterdam-set crime series, ‘Women of the Night’.”

After obtaining his Master's degree in Music Production at the School of Arts of University College Ghent, Hannes started working as composer assistant to Steve Willaert, one of Belgium’s most prolific screen scomposers, and composing for several projects produced by A Team Productions such as Land of the Heroes and Baghdad Messi by universally acclaimed director Sahim Omar Kalifa.

When Hannes met the talented Belgian directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, they decided to collaborate for their first feature Image, quickly followed by Black, awarded with the Discovery Award during the 40th edition of TIFF in 2015.  For El Arbi & Fallah's flashy third feature Gangsta (Patser), De Maeyer created the perfect musical power shot, inspired by both iconic 80s film scores and contemporary electronic influences.

In 2019, Hannes composed the impressive symphonic score to Belgian war epic Torpedo for which he was awarded with the 2020 Best Original Score for a Belgian Production at the prestigious World Soundtrack Awards. Review Graveyard awarded a score of 10/10 for Torpedo – “De Maeyer delivers an epic score, packed with original themes, that will send shivers down your spine.”

Other recent projects include Rafaël, the Dutch romantic drama by award-winning filmmaker Ben Sombogaart and one of nine films shortlisted to be the Dutch entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards, the German feature Immenhof, an immensely popular youth film by Sharon von Wietersheim, the original score to nerve-wrecking tv-series Keizersvrouwen (Women of the Night) and co-composed by French composer Eloi Ragot , as well as De Stig, a moving and inspiring documentary about cyclist Stig Broeckx, and the Irish Tour de France drama The Racer, selected for SXSW in 2020.

Most recently, Hannes completed the score to the internationally airing animated comedy series Ninja Express (Warner Media’s Boomerang/Cartoon Network (EMEA, APAC, LATAM), CBCC (UK), Gulli (France), Huace (China) and Ketnet (Belgium)) and the UK remake of crime drama series Professor T (ITV/PBS).

“In Professor T, De Maeyer introduces a beautiful main theme with a pulse and purpose, and variations of it can be heard throughout the score, supporting the characters and giving scenes greater layers and depth. Though versatile, De Maeyer is primarily a thematic composer with talent for melody, character and orchestration.” (Silva Screen Records)

Hannes is currently working on Adil & Bilall’s newest project Rebel and on Immenhof – Das große Versprechen, the second feature from the popular German franchise.