Changing tracks: Craig Armstrong

Published on Friday 11 July 2008 16:44

Composer Craig Armstrong shares his top five musical moments

CINEMA PARADISO

Ennio Morricone

The music by Morricone in this film score is beautiful. It's timeless, and as film music it stands by itself. It's hard not to love the melodies.

EVERYTHING HAPPENS TO ME

Chet Baker

This is a brilliant record. The film Let's Get Lost by Bruce Weber is a documentary about Chet Baker's life, with all its challenges and artistic brilliance. For me, playing Chet Baker is a quiet moment at home, probably on a Sunday morning. For a few years this album was not so easy to find, so wherever I saw it I would pick up copies and pass them on to friends.

ETERNITY'S SUNRISE

Taverner

I've always been an admirer of John Taverner's work, and 'Eternity's Sunrise' is a special composition. The music is set to words by William Blake for soprano. In this recording the soprano is Patricia Rozario.

MAHLER'S FIFTH SYMPHONY

Mahler

I was asked by the Barbican to compose a work to be premiered by the London Sinfonietta. I chose to base my new piece called 'Visconti' around the opening bars of Mahler's 'Adagietto'. I'm a huge fan of the film director Visconti, and 'Adagietto' is used in his masterpiece Death In Venice over the striking opening scene of the lagoon. Mahler has been very influential to me as a composer and, in a sense, 'Visconti' belongs to the time-honoured tradition of reworking, rearranging or 'taking as a starting point' a piece written by a composer from another generation.

HELICOPTER STRING QUARTET (ARDITTI QUARTET)

Karlheinz Stockhausen

When I was studying composition at the Royal Academy of London in 1977, Karlheinz Stockhausen was a huge influence on me. I studied Electronic and Studio Techniques as part of my course there and was into the experimental side of classical music. I was asked to take part in the Stockhausen Festival a few years ago at the Barbican; it was a real honour for me. I've always had a fascination for using 'found sounds' and this is an ultimate piece in that respect.

• Craig Armstrong's current project Winona release their debut single Without You tomorrow

• www.myspace.com.winonaofficial