Press release from J&E Publicity
Movie maestro Guy Gross’ dynamic score brings East West 101 to life. Series three of the ground-breaking series is to premiere on April 20 at 8.30pm on SBS ONE.
Gross’ score builds energy, pace and emotion to drive the explosive next edition in the compelling crime drama. The seven-part third series created by Knapman Wyld Television continues as the major crime squad Inspector Patricia Wright (Susie Porter) and Detective Zane Malik (Don Hany) investigate crime and murder in all quarters of multicultural Sydney.
Gross’ score juxtaposes traditional eastern styles with a hard edge contemporary western score to explore the fallout from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through crimes committed in Australia.
"We couldn’t have had a better sound track then we have in the new series of East West 101 particularly in building the bridge between the music of east and west,” said Steve Knapman, creator and producer of the award winning series. “Guy Gross can write film scores as good as anybody in the world,” said Knapman.
Gross incorporates a number of authentic Middle Eastern instruments to his score – (the Darbuka, Oud, Qanun, Duduk etc..) Many of them he played himself and for others he called upon the cream of local session musicians. This juxtaposed with more contemporary scoring techniques (electric guitars, synth drums, Strings, etc..) helps give East West 101 its tense and fast pace sound.
Gross is no stranger to uniting diverse cultural sounds. In 2005 he directed, produced and composed the music for animated TV special Blinky Bill’s White Christmas. The opening song Christmas in Australia was performed by Christine Anu and even performed that year at the Carols in the Domain.
“An Aboriginal woman singing a Christmas song written by an Israeli born Jewish guy who lives in Australia; talk about a melting pot of cultures coming together,” said Gross.
Listen to a sample of Gross’ music from East West 101 here.
About Guy Gross
Guy Gross is one of Australia's leading film and television composers and recipient of the APRA/AGSC International Achievement Award, considered the most prestigious accolade for an Australian screen composer.
Guy Gross is currently working on Stephan Elliott's latest feature A Few Best Men. His film scores cover a huge variety of styles including award winning TV series East West 101, telemovie Model Daughter: The Killing of Caroline Byrne, documentary I Spry his British Academy Award (BAFTA) nominated score to the international hit The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert to the US SCI-FI series Farscape.
Over his 25 year career, Guy has composed music for hundreds of hours of television, including children's animation, commercials and Australian feature films. His film music has underscored the acting performances of Isabel Luca, Toni Collette, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Garry McDonald, Molly Ringwald, Kylie Minogue, Phil Collins and Guy Pearce and his scores have been performed live in concert by the Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland Symphony Orchestras.
Click here to listen to the score from East West 101 series 1 here.