Draft:Gareth Cousins

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Gareth Cousins is a British score mixer, music editor, recording engineer and composer. He is known for his work on major feature films and television productions, including serving as scoring mixer on the Academy Award-winning film Gravity (2013), for which he received a Cinema Audio Society Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing.[1][2]

Early career

Cousins began his career at Abbey Road Studios in London in the late 1980s, working as a recording engineer and programmer across classical, pop and film recording sessions. During this period he worked on major film sessions at the studio, including Aliens, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Cry Freedom.

He went on to engineer and co-produce Vanessa-Mae's 1995 album The Violin Player, recorded at Abbey Road and Whitfield Street Recording Studios, on which he is credited as engineer and programmer across the main tracks.[3] The album sold over eight million copies worldwide. He also co-produced the initial recordings for the classical crossover string quartet Bond, which formed the backbone of their debut album Born; Cousins is named as the engineer recruited to record those sessions in the band's documented history.[4] Born reached number one in 21 countries and achieved platinum status in twelve.

Career in film and television

From the mid-1990s Cousins worked extensively on film scores, collaborating with composer Trevor Jones on a series of productions including Dark City (1998), The Mighty (1998), Desperate Measures (1998) and Notting Hill (1999).[5] On Notting Hill he handled score recording, mixing, and additional song production, including work on Elvis Costello's recording of "She". The film's soundtrack won the Brit Award for Best Soundtrack at the BRITs 2000.[6] He also worked on The Mighty (1998) with Jones and Sting, mixing additional music for a score that earned Sting a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song nomination.[7]

In 2005, Cousins served as music editor on Batman Begins, receiving a nomination for the Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing in a Feature Film – Music.[8]

Gravity and the Cinema Audio Society Award

Cousins developed a long-term collaboration with composer Steven Price, working together across a substantial run of film and television projects. Their most prominent collaboration was Gravity (2013), directed by Alfonso Cuarón, on which Cousins served as scoring mixer and recording engineer at Abbey Road Studios and British Grove Studios.[9] The score's production involved an unconventional approach: as Cuarón had minimised traditional sound effects to convey the silence of space, the music had to carry the film's sonic texture. Cousins and Price developed a method of recording live orchestral performances and processing them electronically, blurring the boundary between score and sound design.[10]

Steven Price's score won the Academy Award for Best Original Score and the BAFTA Award for Best Original Music at the 86th Academy Awards and 67th British Academy Film Awards respectively.[11] The film's full sound team, including Cousins as scoring mixer, won the Cinema Audio Society Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Motion Picture (Live Action) at the 50th Annual CAS Awards in February 2014.[1][2][12] The Cinema Audio Society confirmed that this was Cousins' first CAS nomination and win.[13] Gravity was also nominated for the NAMM TEC Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Sound, with Cousins named individually as Score Mixer.[9]

The Gravity sessions required the use of three computers simultaneously to handle the volume of audio processing involved, a workflow Cousins subsequently discussed with technology media as illustrating the rapid development of computing capability in film music production.[10]

Recognition as a film music professional

In July 2018, Apple Inc. selected Cousins as one of a small number of global creative professionals to demonstrate the new MacBook Pro at a press briefing in Amsterdam. This was subsequently reported in the MacFormat newsletter and by Production Expert, which featured Cousins running a live Pro Tools session of over 400 active voices to test the laptop under professional scoring conditions.[14]

Avid Technology, the makers of Pro Tools, featured Cousins as the subject of a dedicated editorial case study covering his use of Pro Tools HDX on the score for Suicide Squad (2016).[15]

Emmy nomination and natural history work

In 2021, Cousins received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Nonfiction or Reality Program as music editor on David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (2020), a Netflix documentary narrated by David Attenborough.[16] The film won three Emmy Awards at the same ceremony, including Outstanding Music Composition and Outstanding Sound Mixing.[17]

Royal Shakespeare Company

From the mid-2010s, Cousins produced and engineered a substantial run of original cast soundtrack albums for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), documenting the RSC's productions across the complete cycle of Shakespeare's plays. The albums were released under the RSC's own label and are available on streaming platforms. Composers featured across the series include Dame Evelyn Glennie, who composed the score for the 2018 RSC production of Troilus and Cressida directed by Gregory Doran,[18] and Laura Mvula, who composed the score for the 2017 RSC production of Antony and Cleopatra directed by Iqbal Khan.[19][20]

Selected filmography

YearTitleRole
1995The Violin Player (Vanessa-Mae)Recording engineer and programmer[3]
1998Dark CityScore mixer and synthesiser programmer
1998The MightyAdditional music mixer[7]
1999Notting HillScore and song mixer[6]
2000Born (Bond)Producer and recording engineer[4]
2005Batman BeginsMusic editor[8]
2013GravityScoring mixer[1]
2016Suicide SquadScore mixer[15]
2020David Attenborough: A Life on Our PlanetMusic editor[16]

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryWorkResult
2000Brit Award for Best SoundtrackBest SoundtrackNotting Hill (shared)Won[6]
2006Golden Reel Award (MPSE)Best Sound Editing in Feature Film – MusicBatman Begins (shared)Nominated[8]
2014Cinema Audio Society AwardOutstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing – Motion Picture (Live Action)Gravity (shared)Won[1][2][12]
2015NAMM TEC AwardOutstanding Creative Achievement in SoundGravity (shared)Nominated[9]
2021Primetime Emmy AwardOutstanding Sound Editing for a Nonfiction or Reality ProgramDavid Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (shared)Nominated[16]

References

  1. Patten, Dominic (22 February 2014). "Cinema Audio Society Awards: 'Gravity', 'Frozen' Take Film Honors". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 14 May 2026.
  2. McNary, Dave (22 February 2014). "Gravity, Frozen, Game of Thrones top CAS sound mixing awards". Variety. Retrieved 14 May 2026.
  3. "Vanessa-Mae – The Violin Player". Discogs. Retrieved 14 May 2026.
  4. "Bond (string quartet)". Wikipedia. Retrieved 14 May 2026. Bush pushed ahead without Batt, recruiting Batt's former engineer Gareth Cousins.
  5. Robjohns, Hugh (September 1999). "Gareth Cousins: Recording The Music For Notting Hill". Sound on Sound. Retrieved 14 May 2026.
  6. "The BRITs 2000". BRIT Awards. Retrieved 14 May 2026.
  7. "The Mighty". Golden Globes. Retrieved 14 May 2026.
  8. "Batman Begins – Awards". IMDb. Retrieved 14 May 2026.
  9. "Nominees for the 30th Annual NAMM TEC Awards for Outstanding Creative Achievement". TEC Awards. Retrieved 14 May 2026.
  10. Miles, Stuart (10 July 2019). "Most music for TV and films is now made entirely using a computer rather than a real orchestra". Pocket-lint. Retrieved 14 May 2026.
  11. "Gravity (soundtrack)". Wikipedia. Retrieved 14 May 2026.
  12. Giardina, Carolyn (22 February 2014). "Gravity Tops Sound Mixers Awards". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 14 May 2026.
  13. "50th Annual CAS Awards" (PDF). CAS Quarterly. Cinema Audio Society. Spring 2014. Retrieved 14 May 2026.
  14. "Will Pro Tools Work Well On The New MacBook Pro". Production Expert. 23 July 2018. Retrieved 14 May 2026.
  15. "Gareth Cousins Scores a Hit With Pro Tools HDX for "Suicide Squad" Soundtrack". Avid Blogs. Avid Technology. Retrieved 14 May 2026.
  16. "David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet". Television Academy. Retrieved 14 May 2026.
  17. "David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet wins three Emmys". Silverback Films. 13 September 2021. Retrieved 14 May 2026.
  18. "Troilus and Cressida: Music and Speeches". Evelyn Glennie. Retrieved 14 May 2026.
  19. "Antony and Cleopatra: Music and Speeches". Opus Arte. Retrieved 14 May 2026.
  20. "Laura Mvula". Wikipedia. Retrieved 14 May 2026.