Christopher Barnett scores experiences. Collaborators speak consistently of his artistic sensitivity when scoring material. This understanding reaches its most personal expression in PROFUNDUM, his solo EP on Besant Hall Records, an unguarded meditation on loss and grief, and sitting in the still, searching space of composers like Ryuichi Sakamoto, Robert Glasper and Johann Johansson.

His score for A DOSE OF HAPPINESS (Доза щастие), Yana Titova’s biopic of a young mother in 1990s Sofia struggling with heroin addiction, recorded with the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra, contributed to the film’s number one release at the Bulgarian box office and fed directly into national changes in drug education policy.

His five-film collaboration with David Wilkinson, whose work is known for its investigative approach, has produced a series of critically recognised British documentaries over the past decade, among them GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER(S), which was ranked THE GUARDIAN‘s top documentary of 2021.

For CHANNEL 4‘s hard-hitting MODERN BRITISH SLAVERY, an exposé of forced labour and trafficking in the UK, his score served as both witness and advocate. He bought a similar sensitivity to YOHANNA, a drama following a young nun whose faith is tested when she confronts child exploitation – a film nominated at the International Film Festival Rotterdam before sweeping multiple Asian film awards.

BORROWED TIME, a BBC FILMS, co-production starring Phil Davis and Theo Barklem-Biggs, premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, where it was voted BEST OF FEST. A ‘bittersweet comedy’, the film paired humour with an undertow of loss and broken family bonds, material that called for a score holding both registers at once.

For director Dina Burlis, he scored JOY WOMACK: THE WHITE SWAN and BREAKING BOUNDARIES, bringing the same attentiveness to stories of two young women navigating prejudice and physical extremity on the world’s most demanding stages.

His additional score contributions include the BAFTA-nominated comedy, A COCK & BULL STORY, starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, and documetary, SPEER GOES TO HOLLYWOOD, recorded at Air Studios London, which earned an International Documentary Association Best Score nomination. 

Barnett holds an MMus in Composition for Film & TV, with training spanning jazz, classical composition, piano, and guitar, alongside the study and performance of Caribbean steel pan, Shona drumming, mbira, Native American musical traditions, and Balinese and Javanese gamelan. He has composed for theatre, award ceremonies, corporate campaigns for major brands, including Madame Tussauds and the London Eye, and his piano work appears on the London College of Music’s Grade 8 syllabus. He has recorded with studio orchestras in London, Budapest, and Sofia and in 2020, his work appeared on Air-Edel’s charity album BREATHE IN, BREATHE OUT alongside Patrick Doyle, Dario Marianelli, and Lisa Gerrard.

An educator who has served on both academic and film industry panels, including those for BAFTA and IVORS ACADEMY, Barnett is a voting member of BAFTA, IVORS ACADEMY, EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY, PRS and WORLD SOUNDTRACK ACADEMY.