James Hannay

About James Hannay

James Hannay is a London-based composer, producer and session musician. He works primarily in documentaries but also with carefully chosen brands.

James has worked with numerous production companies, including the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, the Guardian Website, Dorothy Street Pictures, Thumbs Up Productions, Celestial, Just So Films amongst others.

Classically trained in piano and specialised in guitar, James is also an Alumnus of Boston’s renowned Berklee College of Music where he studied: Orchestration, Jazz Piano, Advanced Guitar techniques, World Music Styles, Art of Mixing, Music for Film/TV, Music for Advertising, and Music Composition and Theory.

Working out of a studio he himself designed in 2021, he creates soundscapes with a modern yet organic feel using both live and sampled instruments. James likes to collaborate. Frequently calling upon the likes of Antonia Pagulatos (first-call violinist for Damon Albarn) and Sarathy Korwar (percussionist, composer and artist who won the AIM music prize for his album More Arriving in 2020.)

“James composed two tracks for my BBC3 film about a young woman with a complex psychiatric condition. He understood the emotional dynamics of the scenes and I was thrilled with the tracks he composed: they worked beautifully and throughout the process James was incredibly hardworking, ultra-responsive to our notes, patient, good-natured and met the challenge head on.”

Marina Parker, Director and Two-Time Winner of the Bafta Award for Best Documentary, Project: Hello Goodbye—Movie
“We were only given a few days to provide a score, which meant that James and Sarathy had to work very fast to produce the result we were looking for. They were very creative and professional with this tight and, on the face of it, contradictory brief. The result was just as we had hoped.”

Jono Stevens, Director, Just So Films, Project: Biotherm Homme—Advert
“We were very happy with this collaborative effort which displayed real and necessary versatility in an intense film.”

Clementine Malpas, Tiger Nest Productions, Project: Angelina Jolie Meets Hala —Documentary
“We didn’t know what we were looking for until James evolved three pieces of music which seemed to cue the location and the sentiment perfectly.”

Leslie Knott, Tiger Nest Productions, Project: Angelina Jolie Meets Hala —Documentary