David Paul Jones

David Paul Jones is an Edinburgh based composer born in Ayrshire, Scotland in 1969. He integrates his work as a composer with live performance as a vocalist and pianist and is producer for his contemporary classical collective DPJ Ensemble. He has performed in arts festivals throughout the UK, Europe and worldwide including South America, Middle East and Australia.

He began composing during studies at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama in the early 90’s where as an award winning pianist he championed the major piano works of Debussy and Ravel whilst immersing in the sound worlds of seminal composers and artists including Henryk Gorecki, Harold Budd and Cocteau Twins.

His music is founded on an inquiry into simplicity and beauty of sound, blending a classical core with folk and popular song styles revealing music of universal appeal.

His early instrumental works explored the contemporary chamber ensemble in a series of commissioned pieces written for ensembles of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra - Footsteps Across Knadgerhill (1990), A Second Glance Across Knadgerhill (1992) and Requiem (String Quartet) (1992). Since then his work has focused on his primary interests – writings for the human voice, music for theatre and live concert performance.

Early vocal works include Sigh (1991), Precious (1992) and works written for soprano Lisa Milne – Lullaby (1992) and Words for Sometime (1993). Larger choral works include From The Edge Of The World (1994) and Mr K’s Talk Without Words (2002).

One of his most important and acclaimed works to date Something There (2000-2002) introduced his own vocal performance and the creation of DPJ Ensemble. Something There is his only commercial release to date lovingly recorded on Linn Records. The album and studio quality downloads are available from the Linn Records website.

Theatre soundtracks and sound designs include Parallel Lines (1996), Electra (2000) (Theatre Cryptic), Those Eyes, That Mouth (2003), The Devil’s Larder (2005) (Grid Iron), The Escapologist (2006) (Suspect Culture) and Elizabeth Gordon Quinn (2006) (National Theatre Of Scotland). His soundtracks and live performances with Grid Iron have been nominated twice for Best Music in the Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland. Other mixed media projects include Inquiry (Dialogue With Distraction) (1996) and Diving-Bell (2002) both inspired by the work of J. Krishnamurti. His work with children’s theatre includes Beyond (2006) (East Glasgow Youth Theatre and Vesoliy Gorchishnik, Russia). TV soundtracks include BBC Panorama.