DAMIAN: Before we start to go into too much detail about Ripper Street and update the reader on what you’ve been up to since our last interview in 2014, I’d like to just spend some time talking about what it’s actually like to be a prolific composer for the screen. Can you talk me through an average day in the life of Dominik Scherrer please? ...

Dominik Scherrer is an award-winning London based composer and sound designer, who’s written music for a number of well-known TV shows and independent films. ....

Ripper Street is a British TV series set in Whitechapel in the East End of London in 1889, six months after the infamous Jack the Ripper murders finally ended. H Division is the police precinct tasked with keeping order, but tensions are understandably high, as each new murder elicits fear that the Ripper may be back. The show stars Matthew Macfadyen as commander of H Division Edmund Reid, Jerome Flynn as Reid’s right-hand man Bennet Drake, and Adam Rothenberg as former US Army surgeon and Pinkerton agent Homer Jackson, who is H Division’s expert in the new field of forensics...

Dominik Scherrer's Ivor Novello award takes pride of place on a book case in his front room. The bronze statuette, which he scooped for Best Television Soundtrack at this year's ceremony, is still new enough to be a talking point.

"It's very beautiful in its own right," he says, "And very heavy too. Feel the weight of it. I was just talking with a friend the other day. We decided it was probably heavy enough to kill somebody with."

If Scherrer has murder on his mind, then there is a good reason for it. He's just started working on the soundtrack for the third series of Ripper Street, the BBC1 drama that earned him the award...

Dominik Scherrer is the daring two-time Ivor Novello winning and Emmy nominated composer who has fashioned intricate musical tableaus for gripping film and television dramas including The Widow, Requiem, The Missing, Ripper Street, Agatha Christie’s Marple, The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz, An Inspector Calls, Baptiste, Scenes of a Sexual Nature, The City and the City, The Collection, Retribution, and Monroe. 

Classically trained with an insatiable appetite for expressive electronic textures, evocative vocal performances, and cultural hybridity, Dominik has proven himself as an experimentalist with a nuanced approach to musical architecture. In another extension of his artistry, Dominik continues to explore his passion for filmmaking, pioneering and dominating the niche of ‘film-opera.’ His tantalizing 1998 short film, Hell for Leather premiered at Sundance and garnered ten awards for its originality and panache. In our engaging exchange, Dominik delves into the profound beauty and sadness he conjured in his Congolese flavored score for The Widow, and how he drew influence from the late 16th-century occult or angelic language, Enochian for his creative collaboration with Bat for Lashes’ Natasha Khan on Requiem. 

The first episode of the supernatural thriller series REQUIEM will be broadcast tonight 9 pm on BBC One in the UK, before its international release on Netflix. You can watch it here. The soundtrack has been composed and produced by Dominik Scherrer (The Missing) and Natasha Khan aka Bat For Lashes. 

REQUIEM, created by Kris Mrksa (Underbelly) and directed by Mahalia Belo (BAFTA Breakthrough Brit 2017), is set in the darkest corners of rural Wales. Twenty years ago, a toddler disappeared, never to be seen again. Rising cello star Matilda Gray (Lydia Wilson) is drawn to the case and discovers her own part in a terrifying otherworldly secret.

This newest score by award-winning composer Dominik Scherrer, who also brought you the music to some of the finest television dramas such as The Missing, Ripper Street & Marple, reinforces both the subtle-scary and supernatural character of ‘Requiem’. To compose the original score of this six-episode dark drama series, Dominik collaborated with Bat For Lashes’ Natasha Khan.

From mercurial detectives to mysterious widows, Composer Dominik Scherrer has worked on projects of all types. We sat down to discuss process, influences, and advice.

PremiumBeat: This year, you’ve worked on the U.K. series Baptiste and the Amazon Prime original The Widow. As a composer born in Zurich, music may be a universal language, but have you found that the process of composing for various outlets, in various countries, changes how you work?

Dominik Scherrer: I came to London as a teenager, and I have worked primarily in England and for the U.S. But, of course, as you say, the shows we produce will go out in many territories. In the end, there is no point in second-guessing any market. We just have to take the decisions that we think are the best for the show.

Dominik Scherrer is an award winning British-Swiss composer who lives and works in London and is widely known globally for his music in some of the best premium television dramas and films; Requiem, Ripper Street which earned him an Ivor Novello Award and RTS Award Nomination, The Missing (2015 Primetime Emmy Nomination), Amazon’s The Collection (Ivor Novello Nomination), Marple (Ivor Novello Nomination), Inspector Calls, Monroe (series 1 & 2), Scenes of a Sexual Nature, The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz (Best Music Award at Spain’s Estapona Film Festival), Alice Through The Looking Glass to name a few. Dominik has his own avant-garde disco & video art duo, and composes performance music for the theatre. He also produces sound design and composition for fine art installations, most notably for artist Suki Chan.

Ivor Novello Award-winning Composer, Dominik Scherrer is a man for all of time and all of history. If you gaze throughout his career so far, you will find a versatile range that never settles in one genre, and never gravitates towards a single style.

He grew up in a musical household, and got involved with music early on; initially classical, and then had his own bands. But he was drawn into the synergy of music and Film, and began to explore his passion in various ways. He would make art videos and compose music to them, and adapt literary works for the screen, set to music. Eventually and naturally, he was asked to score Films; starting with small ensemble scores until he was offered to do an orchestral score for a feature Film.