Traitor marks the first production of Overture Films and opens August 27th
Soundtrack available on Varese Sarabande on August 26th
(Los Angeles, CA) Mark Kilian scores Traitor for writer/director Jeffrey Nachmanoff (screenwriter of The Day After Tomorrow). The film co-stars Academy Award nominee Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda, Crash) and Guy Pearce (Memento, L.A. Confidential). Traitor is a taut international thriller set against a jigsaw puzzle of covert counter-espionage operations. Kilian wrote an exotic and riveting score for the film which will be released on Varese Sarabande August 26th; film opens August 27th.
Mark Kilian has traversed the globe in efforts to record the perfect scores. He gained notoriety for the score he co-composed with Paul Hepker for the Oscar Winning Foreign Film, Tsotsi. Kilian and Hepker returned to their African roots to record the music and returned to work with director Gavin Hood last year for New Line’s Rendition, which they recorded in Morocco and South Africa. Last year Kilian independently scored Before the Rains which he traveled to India to research and record the music. He also wrote the music for Michael Skolnik’s award-winning documentary Without the King which was recorded in South Africa.
The South African native began piano and guitar studies at an early age. He continued his studies at the University of Natal in Durban under Professor Darius Brubeck [son of legendary jazz musician Dave Brubeck]. During the early ‘90s, Kilian spearheaded the popular Durban band Shades, which was one of the foremost club jazz bands to break the color barrier in South Africa. He went on to perform with artists like Shirley Bassey, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Airto Moreira and the Brubeck brothers. He toured the US and Europe and recorded two albums with Darius Brubeck as Gathering Forces and the NU Jazz Connection. After earning a Bachelor of Music, he moved to the U.S. for the film scoring program at the University of Southern California. Kilian was then recruited by instructor and legendary film composer Christopher Young (Spider-Man 3) as an electronic score producer and composer\'s assistant for Species, Copycat, Virtuosity and Hard Rain.
In 1997, Kilian scored his first film, Lovergirl starring Sandra Bernhard. Since then he has written music for many features including King Solomon\'s Mines, Icon, Blind Horizon, Skulls 3, The Animatrix and Raise Your Voice. His TV credits include ABC\'s Daybreak and Jake in Progress, Kitchen Confidential (Fox), FX: The Series (Rysher) and Boarding House: The Northshore (WB). He has also provided music for the video games The Matrix: Path of Neo and Full Spectrum Warrior. Mark has worked as orchestrator, arranger and conductor for Paul Oakenfold, Rob D and Juno Reactor on the Matrix: Reloaded film.
As a songwriter and musician, Kilian recently wrote and recorded strings for the new Glenn Hughes album Music for the Divine, produced by Chad Smith. He just released his first solo album under the name The Gravy Street entitled Daisy Confused.
Mark Kilian\'s deep understanding and appreciation of world music, jazz, electronica and modern classical music has formed a musical style which has been described as rhythmically sophisticated, evocative and driving, while retaining a raw emotional simplicity that draws on the creative use of everyday sound.