Paul Haslinger (born 11 December 1962) is an
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
n musician and composer. He lives and works in
Los Angeles, California
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, ...
.
Life and career
Early life
Haslinger was born and raised in
Linz
Linz (Pronunciation: , ; ) is the capital of Upper Austria and List of cities and towns in Austria, third-largest city in Austria. Located on the river Danube, the city is in the far north of Austria, south of the border with the Czech Repub ...
, Austria. He attended high school at Kollegium Aloisianum, a Jesuit school near Linz. After graduating, he decided to pursue music professionally and studied at both the
Vienna’s Academy of Music and the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...
. During this time he developed a career as a session player in Vienna and performed with local bands and artists.
Tangerine Dream (1986–1991)
In 1986, Haslinger joined the German electronic music group
Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup of the grou ...
. During his 5 years with the group, he recorded a total of 15 albums, participated in 4 international tours, and collaborated on a number of soundtracks including ''
Miracle Mile'', ''
Near Dark'', ''
Shy People'' and Miramar’s ''
Canyon Dreams'' directed by
Jan Nickman. The soundtrack for Canyon Dreams earned Haslinger his first
Grammy
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...
nomination in 1991.
Solo work in music
In 1991, Haslinger left Tangerine Dream and relocated to Los Angeles. At the time, he was signed to Private Music. While under contract, he worked on a joint project with
Peter Baumann, called Blue Room (unreleased). In 1994 Haslinger released his first solo record,
Future Primitive (Wildcat), followed by
World Without Rules (1996, RGB) and Score (1999, RGB).
Collaborations
Through the 1990s, Haslinger collaborated on a number of projects with a variety of artists, among them: French Electronic band
Lightwave
LightWave 3D is a 3D computer graphics program developed by LightWave Digital. It has been used in films, television, motion graphics, digital matte painting, visual effects, video game development, product design, architectural visualizatio ...
, dark-ambient icon Brian Williams, aka
Lustmord
Brian Williams is a Welsh musician, sound designer and composer. He has released albums under the name Lustmord starting in the 1980s and through the present.
Williams began as a recording artist within the industrial genre, working with Ch ...
, singers
Anna Homler &
Nona Hendryx, as well as
Jon Hassell
Jon Hassell (March 22, 1937 – June 26, 2021) was an American trumpet player and composer. He was best known for developing the concept of "Fourth World" music, which describes a "unified primitive/futurist sound" combining elements of various w ...
. In 1998, Haslinger was asked to join the team around film composer
Graeme Revell
Graeme Revell (born 23 October 1955) is a New Zealand musician and composer. He came to prominence in the 1980s as the leader of the industrial rock/ electronic rock group SPK. Since the 1990s he has worked primarily as a film score composer. ...
. He worked as a music programmer and arranger on films such as ''
Chinese Box'' (1999), ''
The Negotiator'' (1998), ''
The Siege'' (1998), ''
Pitch Black'' (2000),
Blow (2001), and ''
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' (2001). Haslinger has always favored a collaborative approach to film scoring, and has worked with many studio musicians and performers, such as
Steve Tavaglione, George Doering,
Greg Ellis,
Diego Stocco, Charlie Campagna. In recent years he also started returning to some of his earlier work in experimental music, collaborating with
Christian Fennesz and other artists related to British Avantgarde label Touch.
Music for film
Haslinger’s first solo feature film credit came with ''
Crazy/Beautiful'', his second collaboration with director
John Stockwell. They continued to work together on projects including ''
Blue Crush'', ''
Into the Blue'', ''
Turistas'', and ''
In The Blood''. Haslinger has provided scores to several indie and studio features including ''
The Girl Next Door'', ''
Crank'', ''
Turistas'', ''
Shoot 'Em Up
Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs) are a Video game genre, subgenre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain typ ...
'', ''
Death Race'', ''
Takers
''Takers'' is a 2010 American heist film, heist action thriller film directed by John Luessenhop from a story and screenplay written by Luessenhop, Gabriel Casseus, Peter Allen, and Avery Duff. It features Matt Dillon, Paul Walker, Idris Elba, Ja ...
'', ''
The Three Musketeers
''The Three Musketeers'' () is a French historical adventure novel written and published in 1844 by French author Alexandre Dumas. It is the first of the author's three d'Artagnan Romances. As with some of his other works, he wrote it in col ...
'', and ''Mysteries of the Unseen World'', among others.
In 2003, Haslinger scored his first film to open at number 1 at the U.S. box office, ''
Underworld
The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld.
...
'', directed by
Len Wiseman
Len Ryan Wiseman (born March 4, 1973) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for his work on the ''Underworld (film series), Underworld'' series (2003–2016), ''Live Free or Die Hard'' (2007), and the Total ...
. He returned to the popular franchise, scoring both ''
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans and
Underworld: Awakening''. Haslinger’s most popular track, "Eternity and a Day," has been used repeatedly throughout the franchise, and the score to ''Underworld: Awakening'' received a 2012
BMI Film Music Award. Haslinger composed the music for
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and in theaters in 2017. A Resident Evil Soundtrack will be released in conjunction with the film.
In November 2009, Haslinger was hired to compose a new score for ''
The Wolfman'', replacing
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 ...
. However, the studio reverted to Elfman's previously completed score a month before the film's release after finding Haslinger's electronic-based score unsuitable.
Music for television
Haslinger's first solo composer credit came in 2000 with the HBO Films television movie, ''
Cheaters'', which began his relationship with director
John Stockwell. Taking a break from film scoring, he returned to television from 2005-2006 to score
Showtime's
Golden Globe
The Golden Globe Awards are awards presented for excellence in both international film and television. It is an annual award ceremony held since 1944 to honor artists and professionals and their work. The ceremony is normally held every Januar ...
-nominated series ''
Sleeper Cell'' which resulted in Haslinger's first
Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie, or a Special. In 2014, Haslinger was hired to score the AMC series ''
Halt and Catch Fire''. The show is set in the 1980s and has received much critical acclaim for its use of period-specific music. A ''Halt and Catch Fire'' soundtrack was released by Lakeshore Records in 2016. Expanding his work with AMC, in 2015 Haslinger was asked to write the music for AMC's spin-off series to ''
The Walking Dead'', entitled ''
Fear the Walking Dead
''Fear the Walking Dead'' is an American post-apocalyptic horror drama television series created by Robert Kirkman and Dave Erickson for AMC. It is a spin-off to '' The Walking Dead'', which is based on the comic book series of the same na ...
''.
Music for video games
In 2005, Haslinger was approached by
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', ' ...
to score the video game ''
Far Cry Instincts''. Since then, he has scored a string of game releases, including ''
Rainbow Six: Vegas'', ''
Wolverine
The wolverine ( , ; ''Gulo gulo''), also called the carcajou or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species, member of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscular carnivore and a solitary animal. The w ...
'', ''
Need for Speed''. Most recently he collaborated with
Ben Frost on the score for the latest installment in the
''Rainbow Six'' series, entitled ''
Siege
A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...
''.
Works
Film
Television
Video games
Solo projects
With Tangerine Dream
* ''Catch Me If You Can'' (1989, OST released 1994)
* ''Deadly Care'' (1987, OST released 1992)
* ''L'Affaire Wallraff (The Man Inside)'' (1989, OST released 1991)
* ''
Dead Solid Perfect'' (1989, OST released 1991)
* ''
Canyon Dreams'' (1987 OST, released 1991)
* ''
Melrose'' (1990)
* ''East'' (1990 concert, released 2004)
* ''
Miracle Mile'' (1989)
* ''
Lily on the Beach'' (1989)
* ''Rainbow Drive'' (1989, unreleased OST)
* ''
Destination Berlin'' (1989)
* ''Rockface'' (1988 concert, released 2003)
* ''
Optical Race'' (1988)
* ''
Livemiles'' (1988)
* ''
Near Dark'' (1987, OST released 1988)
* ''
Shy People'' (1987, OST released 1988)
* ''
Dead Solid Perfect'' (1988)
* ''
Three O'Clock High'' (OST 1987)
* ''
Tyger'' (1987)
* ''Zoning'' (1987)
* ''Red Nights'' (1987, unreleased OST)
* ''Tonight's the Night'' (1987, unreleased OST)
* ''Vault IV'' (1986 concerts, released 2005)
* ''
Underwater Sunlight'' (1986)
Programmer for Graeme Revell
* ''
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' (OST, 2001)
* ''
Blow'' (2000)
* ''
Red Planet'' (OST, 2000)
* ''
Titan A.E.
''Titan A.E.'' is a 2000 American animated post-apocalyptic science fiction film, science fiction action film directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, and starring Matt Damon, Bill Pullman, John Leguizamo, Nathan Lane, Janeane Garofalo and Drew Ba ...
'' (2000)
* ''
Pitch Black'' (2000)
* ''
The Siege'' (OST, 1998)
* ''
The Negotiator'' (1998)
* ''
Phoenix'' (OST, 1998)
* ''
Chinese Box'' (OST, 1997)
With Lightwave
* ''Bleue comme une orange'' (2004)
* ''Caryotype'' (2002)
* ''A Collection'' (Promo CD - 1999)
* ''
Mundus Subterraneus'' (1995)
* ''Made to Measure'' (Cassette tape - 1994)
* ''
Tycho Brahé'' (1993)
* ''Structure Trilogy'' (Cassette tape - 1991)
Awards
* BMI Television Music Award -"Fear The Walking Dead" (2016)
* BMI Film Music Award - ''Underworld: Awakening'' (2012)
* BMI Film Music Award - ''Takers'' (2011)
* Emmy Nomination - ''Sleeper Cell'' (2006)
* Grammy Nomination (w/ Tangerine Dream) - ''Canyon Dreams'' (1991)
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haslinger, Paul
1962 births
Living people
20th-century Austrian composers
20th-century Austrian male musicians
21st-century Austrian composers
21st-century Austrian male musicians
Austrian electronic musicians
Austrian film score composers
Austrian male film score composers
Austrian television composers
Austrian video game composers
Composers from Linz
Male television composers
University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna alumni
University of Vienna alumni