Below is a collection of my film and theatre scores:
The styles I write in vary from project to project. I specialise in creating sound worlds that are unique to each film or show, and play with the relationship between electronic, acoustic and natural sound.
Feature Documentary 'Arch Angel Ali' Won Awards for Best Original Score at Mindfield Film Festival and Impact Doc Awards
The Deal won the Immersive Experience Award
THEATRE MUSIC
The Deal (2025-6)
The Deal is the most ambitious theatre project I’ve ever been part of. Developed over 18 months through a series of R&Ds, it brought together creative teams across the UK and China, including Gecko Theatre, Dream Awake and CMG, to create a huge immersive production inside the Minghua Ship in Shenzhen. I was the Composer and Musical Director and contributed additional Sound Designer, helping build a musical world that moves throughout the ship alongside its performers and audience.
The score fuses 1940s gypsy jazz with contemporary classical music, choral harmony, emotive vocals, lyrics in multiple languages include French, Romani and Spanish and immersive sound design.
A live three-piece band performs within the action, integrated with dancers, actors and a multi-speaker surround-sound system spanning the different spaces of the ship. The production won an Immersive Experience Award and is intended to have a life of up to seven years in Shenzhen — an extraordinary scale for a piece I had the privilege of helping shape from its conception.
The Rescue (2024)
The Rescue was a collaboration with Gecko Theatre that is still in development. This brand-new devised production delves into the characteristics of archetypal childhood trauma and explores what happens to these wounds as adults. The score uses felt piano, electronica, jazz and neo-classical influences to tell the story of Thalia. A woman on a journey to rescue her inner child.
If Mouth Could Speak (2019/2020)
"Set in Peckham, If Mouth Could Speak mixes rave poetry, 3D soundscapes and scattered monologues to cut laser-deep into the brain of a young immigrant who is on the verge of psychosis."
This score was written for a 10 speaker 3D sound system which I built at CLF Art Cafe in 2020. The sound design and music swirls around the audience heads taking them deeper in the mind of our protagonist. Morphing from London's streets to hospital beds into deep electronic atmospheres and jazz riffs.
Above I have recreated some of the audio for a stereo rendering.
Script written and performed by Timotei Cobeanu
Evelyn (2022)
"There are a few things that we know about Evelyn: we know what she did, we know that we hate her, and we know that she’s still out there. Somewhere. She’s just not Evelyn anymore. She could be anyone.
Evelyn is a story of mob-justice in modern day Britain that interrogates the question: when is justice really served?"
Touring to Mercury Theatre Colchester and Southwark Playhouse, Evelyn's score included a mixture of live music and surround sound. I was involved as an actor, sound designer, live musician and composer.
Wildcard Theatre Company
Written by Tom Ratcliffe
Waive (2019)
Waive is a surreal physical theatre performance devised by Margherita Dheri, Michael Crean, Emily Hindle, Harris Allen and Directed by Erika Sviderskyte.
Dreamaland (2018)
"London. Canary Wharf. September 2008. Following the collapse of the US sub-prime mortgage market, the world economy is in free fall and Johnny thinks he has the answer..."
Hyperdrives 2018 Edinburgh Fringe run of 'Dreamland' has an original score which was created using samples of office equipment, printers, alarm clock bells and analogue synthesisers.
OTHER CREDITS INCLUDE:
Maybe Probably - RedLion Theatre 2022
NUMB - Sense Assembly - Vault Festival 2020
National Youth Theatre 60th Gala - Dir. Paul Roseby - 2015
Marika Mckennell - Camden Peoples Theatre - 2016
Antigone - ETC Theatre Company - Edinburgh Fringe 2012
The Trojan Women - ETC Theatre Company - Edinburgh Fringe 2014
FILM MUSIC
'Conflict of Ego' Fashion Campaign (2020)
Directed by Dottie Kay for Conflict of Ego.
A score created with analogue synthesisers, drum machines, plastic, voice and piano
"Michael Crean’s incredible soundscape reveals the huge breadth of atmospheres that exist in a small area in London"
- Young Perspective
"Crean’s EDM and jazz score elevates the script beautifully"
- EdFringe Review
Archangel Ali (2020)
Archangel Ali is a feature documentary about ex-financial lawyer Ali Khorasany, who, after leaving Goldman Sachs moves to Borneo and becomes a fruitarian (someone who only eats fruit).
Ali's journey is a long quest for what he perceives as 'natural'. The score reflects this - using body percussion, samples of fruit and coconuts, guitars, bazouki and voice.
Directed by Tara Higgins
FIVE:EIGHT (2018)
A dance film directed by Uri Roodner based on the physical theatre piece by Vandenz Karta.
Produced, mixed, recorded and arranged by myself. Co-written with Vandenz Karta. Lyrics and Vocal by Emily Hindle
Untitled Dance Film (2021)
Experimental dance film
Crimson (2016)
Crimson is a short film based on the life of chinese pirate Ching Shih directed by Dottie Kay. The score is made up of manipulated samples of traditional Chinese Percussion, Erdhu and Violins.
Recorded, performed and mixed by myself featuring chinese folk singer Ximbo Feng
OTHER CREDITS INCLUDE:
Sashes - Imlach/ Grey Bear Films - 2016
Logging on to Love - Kate Davis Films - 2015
Stalk - Kate Davis Films - 2016