Martin Armiger has composed music for fourteen feature films, a dozen telemovies and yet another dozen TV mini-series, as well as for many documentaries, long running TV series and short films.
The feature films include Cherie Nowlan’s about-to-be-released Introducing The Dwights as well as her first film Thank God He Met Lizzie, Jane Campion’s Sweetie, George Ogilvie’s The Crossing, Di Drew’s Hildegarde, Bert Deling’s Pure S, and Yahoo Serious’ Young Einstein; the telemovies include The Secret Life of Us, Hard Knox, and six of the Cody films; and the mini-series include Marking Time (again with Cherie Nowlan), Come In Spinner, Ring of Scorpio, Children of the Dragon, The Challenge, The Rainbow Warrior Conspiracy and Bodysurfers; as well as short films like Fetch, documentaries like Cane Toads: An Unnatural History and The Wonderful World of Dogs, and TV series such as Police Rescue, The Last Hotel, Sweet and Sour, Dancing Daze, and Ketchup.
Several of his soundtrack albums established themselves as household favourites, such as the Kate Ceberano/Wendy Matthews album You Always Got the Blues, which was the soundtrack to the series Stringer, and the Grace Knight/Vince Jones album Come in Spinner. Both earned multi-platinum sales awards. As well as these, he produced albums for Playschool (There’s a Bear in There and Oomba Baroomba) and for Marking Time (with John Butler) and for Penny Flanagan, Club Hoy, The Teen Queens, Paul Kelly, Deborah Conway, Renee Geyer, and many other artists.
Before all this he played guitar for a living, writing songs and performing with many bands in the seventies and into the eighties. The last band he was in, The Sports (with singer Steven Cummings), was more or less successful in Australia, releasing four albums and a couple of EPs with Mushroom Records here, and touring UK (signed to Stiff Recored there) and USA (with Arista Records) before disbanding in chaos in 1982.
He’s written for the stage, and for dance (including Fornicon for Sydney Dance Company), and for radio as well as screen. He’s also a published novelist and writes often for magazines as well as the daily press.
Armiger’s work has won many awards including the AFI Best Music for Film, APRA Best Music for TV and Best Soundtrack Album Awards, ARIA Best Adult Contemporary Album, AGSC Best Music for Television Mini-series, and Best TV Theme Music, ABC Countdown Record Producer of the Year, and Roadrunner Magazine Best Songwriter Awards.
He composed the current on-air themes for ABC TV News and Current Affairs, and is foundation Head of the Department of Screen Composition at the Australian Film Television and Radio School in Sydney.
Composer/Filmography:
2007 – Introducing the Dwights (feature film aka Clubland out in June)
2006 – The Surgeon (Network 10 drama series eps 4-8)
2005 – ABC TV News Theme (main theme, all TV news bulletins)
2003 – Marking Time (ABC TV 4hr mini-series)
2001 – Hildegarde (feature film) aka Hildegarde, a Duck Down Under (US title)
2001 – The Secret Life of Us (telemovie and eps 1-2)
2001 – Hard Knox (telemovie)
1999 – Powderburn (feature film)
1999 – Fetch (short film)
1999 – House Gang (SBS TV 6 x 1/2hr comedy series)
1999 – David Carradine’s Martial Arts Adventure (TV documentary)
1998 – Two Girls and a Baby (short film)
1998 – Ketchup (65 x 10mins animation series)
1998 – The Great Stumble Forward (TV documentary)
1997 – Thank God He Met Lizzie (feature film) aka TheWedding Party, (USA: video title)
1997 – Wild Ones (TV 4 x 1/2hr documentary series)
1996 – Cody: Fall from Grace (telemovie)
1996 – Where Angels Fear to Tread (TV documentary)
1995 – Cody: The Wrong Stuff (telemovie) and Cody: The Burn Out (telemovie)
1995 – Party Girls (TV documentary)
1994 Cody: The Tipoff (telemovie)
1994 Cody: Bad Love (telemovie)
1993 Seven Deadly Sins (‘Greed’ and ‘Envy’ episodes) (TV miniseries)
1993 Nice Guys Finish Last (TV documentary)
1992 The Other Side of Paradise (TV miniseries)
1992 Fremantle Conspiracy (TV miniseries)
1991 Children of the Dragon (TV miniseries)
1991 Flowers and The Wide Sea (TV 2 x 1hr documentary series)
1991 Waiting (feature film)
1990 Come in Spinner (TV 3 x 2hr miniseries)
1990 Wonderful World of Dogs (film documentary)
1990 Ring of Scorpio (TV miniseries)
1990 The Crossing, (feature film)
1989. The Body Surfers (TV miniseries)
1989. The Rainbow Warrior Conspiracy (TV miniseries)
1989 Sweetie (feature film)
1988 The Last Resort (30 x 1hr TV Series)
1988 Stringer (TV 8 x 1hr miniseries )
1988 Young Einstein (feature film)
1988-90 Police Rescue (TV series main themes and underscore)
1988 Cane Toads (feature documentary)
1987 Relative Merits (TV Series)
1987 Perhaps Love (telemovie)
1987 I’ve Come about the Suicide (feature film)
1986 The Challenge (TV miniseries )
1986 I Own the Racecourse (feature film )
1986 Two Friends (telemovie)
1986 Cyclone Tracy (TV miniseries)
1986 Dancing Daze (TV Series)
1985 The Empty Beach (feature film)
1985 The Lizard King (telemovie)
1984 Sweet and Sour (TV Series)
1984 Displaced Persons (telemovie)
1984 White Man’s Legend (telemovie
1983 Belau (TV documentary)
1976 Pure S (feature film)
As arranger:
2000 Dark City (feature film: song arranger)
1994 ‘Til There Was You (feature film:song arranger/producer)
Awards
APRA Best Music for Television: 1996 Cody
ARIA Best Adult Contemporary Album: 1992 Come In Spinner
AGSC. Best Music for a MiniSeries: 1992 Children of the Dragon
AGSC. Best music for a series: 1990 Police Rescue
APRA Best soundtrack album: 1989(?) Always Got the Blues
AFI Best Music for a Feature Film: 1986 Young Einstein
ABC Countdown 1984: Record Producer of the Year
RoadRunner Magazine 1979 Songwriter of the Year
ABC Countdown Awards 1978 Best New band: The Sports
Current
In 2004 I became foundation Head of Screen Music at the Australian Film Television and Radio School, where I am still teaching post-graduate courses in Screen Composition in Sydney and Melbourne. Currently living in Melbourne again.
Award Nominations
AFI Best Music for a Feature Film: 1998 Thank God He Met Lizzie.
APRA: Best TV theme 1988: Police Rescue
ARIA Best Adult Album 1992 Come In Spinner
AGSC: Best music for Animation: 1998 Ketchup
AGSC: Best music for a Miniseries 1989 The BodySurfers
AGSC: Best theme music for TV: 1989 Police Rescue
Theatre and Concert:
2000 The White Devil (music for Sydney Theatre Company)
1997 And Yes (short ballet)
1997 String Quartet #1 (for Elektra String Group)
1996 Fornicon (full length ballet for Sydney Dance Company)
1995 Missa Brevis (for The Song Company, Australia tour)
1995 Coriolanus (music for Sydney Theatre Company)
1988 Manning Clark’s History of Australia – The Musical
1986 Illusion (music theatre – Adelaide Festival of Arts)
1975 A Night in Rio (musical for The Pram Factory, Melbourne)