Hans Zimmer is a critically-acclaimed film composer who has scored over 100 films in the last three decades. He is known for is pulsing electronic sound design elements that accompany orchestral instruments. Zimmer is always striving to find unique sounds for his compositions and relies heavily upon the electronic side of music too accomplish this. He has received multiple awards for his work including four Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, and an Academy Award.
The German born composer began his career playing synthesizers in multiple new-wave bands. He even found moderate success with the band, The Buggles. He can be seen in the music video for the 1979 song "Video Killed the Radio Star." His career in scoring films began when he teamed up with legendary film composer Stanley Myers. They scored many films together before Zimmer began to score on his own in 1987.
Hans Zimmer's first heavily viewed work was for the 1988 film "Rain Man." For this film, one of the main characters has autism and lives in his own world within the world. Zimmer created the score using many synthesizers and steel drums crafting a very unique sound to go with the unique character. His work was nominated for an academy award and he has since been one of the top film composers in the world. He has scored many successful films including "The Lion King", "The Gladiator", "The Dark Knight", and "Inception."
Zimmer's work has helped propel electronic music and unique sound creation into the world of film, so much so that it is pretty standard to have hybrid film score for many blockbuster releases. He also founded the company Remote Control Productions which now handles many multimedia aspects of post-production and employs many new composers. Zimmer's work has always been an inspiration to me as a avid keyboard/synthesizer player. He takes simple motifs and with creative sound placement and tempo, can make them larger than life tracks. My favorite work of his to date is Christopher Nolan's "Inception." The music in that film drives the narrative so well and creates atmosphere so well, you don't even realize as an audience member that the music is almost constant throughout the film. Even with all of his success, he still tries to push the envelope on the power of music in film.
