Colin Smith and Simon Elms have worked together as composers, arrangers, producers and instrumentalists for over 30 years.
Their extensive portfolio has featured in films screened at leading international festivals such as IDFA, TIFF, LFF, CPH and Hot Docs, winning numerous awards, including an International Emmy nomination for best music & sound.
They have worked in collaboration with some of the UK’s leading documentary names including Simon Chinn, Kevin McDonald, Nick Read, Jake Scott and Louis Myles.
Their most recent credit for original music and sound design was for the feature doc My Name is Happy, which won the Best international Documentary category at the Grierson Awards 2024, and the Oscar-qualifying Golden Horn award at Krakow Film Festival.
Smith & Elms are equally comfortable working to a creative brief or composing to an edit from scratch.
Alongside their extensive longform experience they have also donned their multiple musical hats working with the likes of Kano, George Michael, Manic Streets Preachers, Rag n Bone Man, Joss Stone and Billy Porter.
Their recent rework of ‘I Predict a Riot’ [for the feature doc ‘Kaiser: The Greatest Footballer Never to Play Football’] was hailed by both Craig Charles and the Kaisers Chiefs themselves as ‘better than the original’.
With many years’ experience also supplying tracks to commercial producers, they have an extensive library of original music and can provide editors with guide tracks upfront to support the edit process.
Over the last three decades Smith and Elms have assembled a talented and inspiring group of sound designers, mix engineers and producers from their Soho based, 5.1 collaborated, studios allowing them to offer a “one stop shop” service for all things audio production and sync.