David Kristian (born November 5, 1967) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

musician and

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

composer and sound designer. David Kristian has been involved in audio for media since the early 1980s, when he first started work as an animation and experimental filmmaker at a New-Brunswick, Canada TV station. Upon relocating to Montreal, Kristian decided to abandon film-making in order to focus on a music career, first as a solo artist, then as the keyboardist and synthesist for the group

Psyche Psyche (''Psyché'' in French) is the Greek term for "soul" (ψυχή). Psyche may also refer to: Psychology * Psyche (psychology), the totality of the human mind, conscious and unconscious * ''Psyche'', an 1846 book about the unconscious by Car ...

, with whom he recorded "The Influence" in Germany. David Kristian left Psyche in late 1989 and he returned to Montreal to concentrate on more Ambient and instrumental music, citing

Tangerine Dream Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese having been the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup ...

Robert Fripp Robert Fripp (born 16 May 1946) is a British musician, songwriter, record producer, and author, best known as the guitarist, founder and longest-lasting member of the progressive rock band King Crimson. He has worked extensively as a session ...

and the film scores of Director

John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, actor, and composer. Although he worked in various film genres, he is most commonly associated with horror, action, and science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s. He ...

as longtime influences. Based on his past experience as a filmmaker, it was clear that David Kristian's path would lead to more soundtrack work. During the 1990s and 2000s, he released several albums on labels as diverse as Crème Organization, Minimal Rome,

Ninja Tune Ninja Tune is an English independent record label based in London. It has a satellite office in Los Angeles. It was founded by Matt Black and Jonathan More (better known as Coldcut) and managed by Peter Quicke and others. Inspired by a visit ...

, Lo Recordings,

Schematic Records Intelligent dance music (commonly abbreviated as IDM) is a style of electronic music originating in the early 1990s, defined by idiosyncratic experimentation rather than specific genre constraints.''"…the label 'IDM' (for avant-garde, 'intel ...

Alien8 Recordings Alien8 Recordings is an independent record label founded in 1996 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The label was founded by Sean O'Hara and Gary Worsley. The label released material from prominent noise artists such as Merzbow, Think About Life, Aub ...

and Apegenine recordings. Kristian has produced music under aliases, including Gentle Bakemono, Francesco Clemente, and DKMD, a

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

duo he is a part of with singer-musician Marie Davidson. David Kristian has also directed two music videos for DKMD, including "Sacrificio"; a horror-disco homage to

Giallo In Italian cinema, ''Giallo'' (; plural ''gialli'', from ''giallo'', Italian for yellow) is a genre of mystery fiction and thrillers that often contains slasher, crime fiction, psychological thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, ...

films. Kristian has also performed at several events, including Mutek, Le Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, SONAR, FCMM, The

Fantasia Festival Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...

, SHARE, and ISEA. David Kristian's return to

sound design Sound design is the art and practice of creating sound tracks for a variety of needs. It involves specifying, acquiring or creating auditory elements using audio production techniques and tools. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including ...

and film scoring was on Karim Hussain's ''Subconscious Cruelty'', for which he contributed eerie ambient music, surreal room tones, and special sound design. Kristian's music and sound design work can be heard on a variety of projects, including

Anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

and web commercials by

Macromedia Flash Macromedia Flash may refer to: *Adobe Animate, a multimedia authoring and computer animation program formerly known as ''Macromedia Flash'' *Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia software platform ...

animation innovator Ryosuke Aoike. He has composed the scores for the short films of Mitch Davis, Matthew Garrett's Beating Hearts, Karim Hussain's "Vision Stains", which is part of the horror anthology film

The Theatre Bizarre ''The Theatre Bizarre'' is a 2011 American horror anthology film. The six segments are directed by Douglas Buck, Buddy Giovinazzo, David Gregory, Karim Hussain, Tom Savini and Richard Stanley. The wraparound segments featuring Udo Kier were ...

, and several feature films, such as Karim Hussain's ''Ascension'', ''La Belle Bête'', Francois Miron's ''The 4th Life'', and Matthew Garrett's ''Morris County''. Other recent

work includes most of the

underscoring Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as t ...

and end titles music for

Nacho Cerdà Nacho Cerdà (born 1968/1969) is a Spanish film director and screenwriter best known for his controversial 1994 short film ''Aftermath''. Biography Career Shorts ''Aftermath'' is the second in a trilogy of short films known as ''La Trilogi ...

's '' The Abandoned'', and Douglas Buck's remake of

Brian De Palma Brian Russell De Palma (born September 11, 1940) is an American film director and screenwriter. With a career spanning over 50 years, he is best known for his work in the suspense, crime and psychological thriller genres. De Palma was a leading ...

's ''

Sisters A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...

''. For the latter film, he collaborated with

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

-winning composer Edward Dzubak (''

As the World Turns ''As the World Turns'' (often abbreviated as ''ATWT'') is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS for 54 years from April 2, 1956, to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created ''As the World Turns'' as a sister show to her other soa ...

''); the two had also previously collaborated on Buck's film ''Prologue''. In 2015, David Kristian was working as a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

sound designer and composer, with credits on such titles as '' Army of Two: The 40th Day'', ''

TERA TERA is a shielded twisted pair connector for use with Category 7 twisted-pair data cables, developed by The Siemon Company and standardised in 2003 by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) with the reference IEC 61076-3-104. Th ...

''. '' Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction'', and open world action-adventure video games ''

Watch Dogs ''Watch Dogs'' (stylized as ''WATCH_DOGS'') is an action-adventure video game franchise published by Ubisoft, and developed primarily by its Montreal and Toronto studios using the Disrupt game engine. The series' eponymous first title was rel ...

'', for which he also created additional music, and most recently, ''

Watch Dogs 2 ''Watch Dogs 2'' (stylized as ''WATCH_DOGS 2'') is a 2016 action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the sequel to 2014's ''Watch Dogs'' and the second installment in the ''Watch Dogs'' series. It was ...

''. He is now working exclusively for

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', '' ...

as an audio artist. In 2014, he co-founded, along with Marie Davidson of

Essaie pas Essaie pas (French for "don't try") is a Canadian electronic music group formed in 2010. Based in Montreal, Quebec, the group consists of wife-and-husband duo Marie Davidson and Pierre Guerineau. History The duo formed in the summer of 2010, re ...

, the Electronica band DKMD. Their music was subsequently released by Giallo Disco Records, who will also be releasing David Kristian's next solo project, which has been described as a classic Berlin School synthesizer album realized entirely on a

Eurorack Eurorack is a modular synthesizer format originally specified in 1995 by Doepfer Musikelektronik. It has since grown in popularity, and as of 2022 has become a dominant hardware modular synthesizer format, with over 15,000 modules available from ...

modular synthesis system.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kristian, David 1967 births Living people Canadian film score composers Male film score composers Canadian electronic musicians Alien8 Recordings artists