Michael Wandmacher (born October 29, 1967) is an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

of music for film, television, and video games. He has worked on numerous well-known projects, including ''

Piranha 3D ''Piranha 3D'' is a 2010 American 3D horror comedy film that serves as a remake of the comedy horror film '' Piranha'' (1978) and an entry in the ''Piranha'' film series. Directed by Alexandre Aja and written by Pete Goldfinger and Josh Sto ...

'', '' Punisher: War Zone'', ''

Bloodborne is a 2015 action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. The game follows a Hunter through the decrepit Gothic, Victorian-era–inspired city of Yharnam, whose inhabita ...

'', ''

Twisted Metal ''Twisted Metal'' is a series of Vehicular combat game, vehicular combat video games originally developed by SingleTrac and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The series has appeared on the PlayStation (console), PlayStation, PlaySta ...

'', and '' The Goldbergs''. Most recently, he has worked on '' Underworld: Blood Wars'', succeeding previous series composers

Paul Haslinger Paul Haslinger (born 11 December 1962) is an Austrian musician and composer. He lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Life and career Early life Haslinger was born and raised in Linz, Austria. He attended high school at Kollegium Aloisi ...

and

Marco Beltrami Marco Beltrami (born October 7, 1966) is an American composer of film and television scores. He has worked in a number of genres, including horror ('' Scream'', ''Mimic, The Faculty, Resident Evil, The Woman in Black, Carrie, A Quiet Place'' ...

Life and career

Wandmacher was born in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

. He began his career composing music for local news media and television commercials before scoring short and feature films by local filmmakers. While following a series of email exchanges that started via a film music newsgroup, Wandmacher met

Alan Silvestri Alan Anthony Silvestri (born March 26, 1950) is an American composer, conductor, orchestrator and music producer of film scores. He has received two Grammy Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and two ...

and was invited to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

to participate in several scoring sessions. They composed music for the English-language releases of several

Jackie Chan Fang Shilong (born Chan Kong-sang; 7 April 1954), known professionally as Jackie Chan,; is a Hong Kong actor and filmmaker, known for his slapstick, acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, and innovative stunts, which he typically perf ...

films including ''Armour of God'' and ''

Drunken Master II ''Drunken Master II'' () is a 1994 Hong Kong action-comedy kung fu film directed by Lau Kar-leung and starring Jackie Chan as Chinese martial arts master and a Cantonese folk hero, Wong Fei-hung. It was Chan's first traditional style mart ...

''. He eventually found success with the black comedy horror film ''

Modern Vampires ''Modern Vampires'' (also known as ''Revenant'') is a 1998 American black comedy-horror film written by Matthew Bright, directed by Richard Elfman and starring Casper Van Dien, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Kim Cattrall, Natasha Lyonne, Udo Kier and Rod ...

''. Wandmacher co-composed the score with

Danny Elfman Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American film composer, singer, songwriter, and musician. He came to prominence as the lead vocalist and primary songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s. Since scoring his ...

, the brother of the film's director

Richard Elfman Richard Elfman (born March 6, 1949) is an American actor, musician, director, producer, screenwriter, journalist, author and magazine publisher. Early life His younger brother is musician and film composer Danny Elfman, with whom Richard woul ...

. Wandmacher permanently relocated to Los Angeles. The majority of Wandmacher's work consists of genre films particularly

horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction **Psychological horror, a subgenre of horror fiction **Christmas horror, a subgenre of horror fiction **Analog horror, a subgenre of horror fiction * ...

and

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

s. In 2015, Wandmacher composed the score to the role-playing video game ''

''. Wandmacher also creates remixes under the pseudonym "Khursor". As such, he has worked with Godhead including a track on The Shadow Realigned album. The Khursor remix of Sting's ''

Every Breath You Take "Every Breath You Take" is a song by the English rock band the Police from their album ''Synchronicity'' (1983). Written by Sting, the single was the biggest US and Canadian hit of 1983, topping the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles chart for ei ...

'' was featured on the trailer for the third season of ''The Americans''.

Works

Theatrical films

Television films

Television series

Video games

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wandmacher, Michael 21st-century American composers Living people Place of birth missing (living people) 1967 births American video game composers