Simon Franglen

Simon Franglen (born 1963, Westminster, London, England) is an English composer, record producer, arranger and musician. His credits include four of the list of top grossing films and six of the list of best-selling albums of all time.

He is best known for his work on Avatar, for which he received Golden Globe and Grammy nominations for the theme song, and for being the producer of "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic, for which he won a Record of The Year Grammy Award.. Other film credits range from David Fincher's Se7en, for which he created the synthesizer programming, to arranging the music for the James Bond films Skyfall and Spectre.

Career
With over four hundred credits on Allmusic.com, Franglen has worked with Michael Jackson, Madonna, Barbra Streisand, David Foster, Quincy Jones, Toni Braxton, and The Corrs. Following the success of the Titanic soundtrack in 1997, Franglen went on to work with pop acts such as Bee Gees, Gary Barlow, Whitney Houston, Boyzone, S Club 7, Monica, and Toni Braxton.

Early career
Music was important in Franglen's home during his childhood. The musician and writer Hans Keller was his great uncle.

After showing prowess with synthesizers whilst working in recording studios as a student, Franglen was hired by Trevor Horn as a Synclavier programmer. He also briefly worked as a live musician but found it repetitive.

Film score work
Franglen moved into work on films when he was introduced to the composer John Barry late the production of the score for Dances with Wolves and colloborated on the soundtrack album. He continued to work with Barry for a number of years. He was also introduced to the film composers Alan Silvestri, Howard Shore and James Horner.

After some work on music scores for television, Franglen moved to the USA, where he discovered a niche between the session keyboard players that were polarised either as classically-trained pianists without little technical experience, or those with great ability with the technology but no classical training or ability as arrangers.

He worked with producer David Foster on the soundtrack for The Bodyguard and later, James Horner on the score for Titanic.

Pop work
Alongside his career on film music, Franglen has also been involved in producing and arranging a huge number of singles and albums that have charted highly, since in the late 1980s.

Recent work
In 2016, after the death of his friend, James Horner, Franglen co-composed the score to The Magnificent Seven. In 2016, he also composed original music for director Terrence Malick's film Voyage of Time. In December 2016, He premiered a new fifteen minute largely orchestrai suite in what CNN called 'The World's Highest Art Space' - a 240 speaker immersive experience featuring four orchestras, solo Guzheng, Erhu, choir and bells on the 2000ft high 126th floor of the Shanghai Tower, Shanghai, China.

In early 2017 he worked with Pink Floyd at Abbey Road, producing 3D mixes of some of their best known tracks for an immersive installation room at the Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains. This opened to the public in May 2017.

Franglen was responsible for the production and further composition of the music throughout Pandora–The World of Avatar which opened at Walt Disney World in Florida in May 2017, taking over duties from James Horner in 2015.

Film credits

 * Grand Canyon (1991) - James Newton Howard - Synclavier Programming
 * The Bodyguard (1992) - Alan Silvestri - Synthesizer Programming
 * Se7en (1995) - Howard Shore - Programming
 * Crash (1996) - Howard Shore - Electronic Music Preparation
 * Space Jam (1996) - James Newton Howard - Synclavier Programming
 * Contact (1997) - Alan Silvestri - Synclavier Programming
 * Volcano (1997) - Alan Silvestri - Synthesizer Programming
 * Titanic (1997) - James Horner - Synthesizers, Instrumental Solo, Producer "My Heart Will Go On"
 * Quest for Camelot (1998) - Patrick Doyle - Additional Synthesizer Programming
 * Moulin Rouge! (2001) - Craig Armstrong - Producer, Vocal Production, Engineer
 * Avatar (2009) - James Horner - Electronic Music Arranger. Composer - Theme song (Golden Globe nomination)
 * The Karate Kid (2010) - James Horner - Synthesizer Programming
 * The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) - James Horner - Arranger
 * Skyfall (2012） - Thomas Newman - Arranger, Programming
 * Wolf Totem (2015) - James Horner - Score Producer, Arranger
 * Southpaw (2015) - James Horner - Score Producer, Arranger
 * The 33 (2015) - James Horner - Score Producer, Arranger
 * Spectre (2015) - Thomas Newman - Arranger, Synthesizer Programming
 * The Magnificent Seven (2016) - James Horner & Simon Franglen - Co-composer
 * Living in the Age of Airplanes (2016) - James Horner - Score Producer, Arranger
 * "Ice (TV series)" (2016) - Series Composer
 * Voyage of Time (2016) - Composer
 * Together (2018) - Composer

Music credits

 * River of Love (1990) - David Foster - Synclavier Programming
 * Rechording (1991) - David Foster - Arranger, Programming
 * Dreams to Dream (1991) - Linda Ronstadt - Synclavier Programming
 * Attitude & Virtue (1991) - Corey Hart - Engineer, Arranger, Synclavier Programming, Assistant Producer
 * Femme Fatale (1992) - Miki Howard - Synclavier Programming
 * World Falling Down (1992) - Peter Cetera - Synclavier Programming
 * The Vanishing Race (1993) - Air Supply - Synclavier Programming
 * The Colour of My Love (1993) - Celine Dion - Synclavier Programming
 * Back to Broadway (1993) - Barbra Streisand - Synclavier Programming
 * The One Thing (1993) - Michael Bolton - Additional Synthesizer Programming
 * Groove On (1994) - Gerald LeVert - Synclavier Programming
 * Dream Away (1994) - Babyface & Lisa Stansfield - Synclavier Programming
 * Through the Fire (1994) - Peabo Bryson - Synclavier Programming
 * Love Lights the World (1994) - David Foster - Synclavier Programming
 * Join the Band (1994) - Take 6 - Synclavier Programming, Drum Programming
 * Something to Remember (1995) - Madonna - Synclavier Programming
 * Q's Jook Joint (1995) - Quincy Jones - Synthesizer Programming
 * HIStory (1995) - Michael Jackson - Keyboards, Drum Programming, Percussion, Synthesizer Programming, Synclavier Programming
 * Remember Me This Way (1995) - Jordan Hill - Synclavier Programming
 * Secrets (1996) - Toni Braxton - Synclavier Programming
 * Falling into You (1996) - Celine Dion - Synclavier Programming
 * For You I Will (1997) - Monica - Synclavier Programming
 * My Heart Will Go On (1997) - Celine Dion - Producer, Arranger, Keyboards, Drum Programming, Synthesizer Programming, Synclavier Programming, Bass
 * Open Road (1997) - Gary Barlow - Synclavier Programming, Drum Programming
 * Love is a Miracle (1997) - Andy Lau - Producer, Arranger, Keyboards, Drum Programming, Synclavier Programming, Bass
 * EV3 (1997) - En Vogue - Synclavier Programming
 * Flesh and Bone (1997) - Richard Marx - Synclavier Programming, Keyboard Programming, Keyboards, Drum Programming
 * Let's Talk About Love (1997) - Celine Dion - Synclavier Programming
 * My Love is Your Love (1998) - Whitney Houston - Synclavier Programming
 * Never Say Never (1998) - Brandy - Synclavier Programming
 * Mona Lisa's Tears (1998) - Terry Lin - Synclavier Programming
 * Where We Belong (1998) - Boyzone - Associate Producer, Arranger, Keyboards, Engineer, Drum Programming
 * Whistle Down The Wind (1998) - Tina Arena - Producer, Arranger, Keyboard Programming, Engineer
 * One Wish (1999) - Deborah Cox - Synclavier Programming
 * The Heat (2000) - Toni Braxton - Keyboards, Programming
 * A New Day Has Come (2002) - Celine Dion - Producer, Arranger, Keyboards, Synthesizer Programming
 * Pulse (2010) - Toni Braxton - Producer

Installations and 3D

 * Shanghai Tower
 * Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains
 * Pandora–The World of Avatar