Anne Dudley
A Grammy-winning founding member of the pioneering 1980s electronic pop trio the Art of Noise, Anne Dudley has embarked on a successful career as a film composer later in the decade. Her solo recording debut, 1995's Ancient and Modern, explored the classical side of her musical range with orchestral and choral works. Dudley won the Academy Award for her score to the 1997 comedy hit The Full Monty before the Art of Noise briefly reunited for 1999's The Seduction of Claude Debussy. The 2000s saw her compose music for movies including Bright Young Things (2003) and Tristan & Isolde (2006), and her scoring output in the 2010s was highlighted by her BAFTA-nominated work for TV's Poldark (2015-2019). The Art of Noise reunited once again in 2017 for a Pioneers of British Electronic Music concert in Liverpool, before Dudley returned with scores for projects spanning Paul Verhoeven's Benedetta (2021) and an Apple TV+ retelling of The Velveteen Rabbit (2023) as well as instrumental solo material (2022's Crossing the Bar).
A graduate of the Royal College of Music with a master's from King's College London, the classically trained Dudley began her professional career as a session keyboardist. A protégée of producer Trevor Horn, she went on to arrange records including ABC's The Lexicon of Love and Malcolm McLaren's classic "Buffalo Girls" (which she also co-wrote) before forming the Art of Noise in 1983 with Horn, JJ Jeczalik, Gary Langan, and Paul Morley. After issuing the 1983 EP Into Battle with the Art of Noise on Horn's ZTT label, they returned with the debut album Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise? in 1984 and had a U.K. Top Ten hit with the MTV-supported "Close (To the Edit)." Their next album, 1986's In Visible Silence, spawned their Grammy-winning hit cover of Henry Mancini's "Peter Gunn" theme as well as "Paranoimia" featuring actor Matt Frewer as TV's Max Headroom. The next year's In No Sense? Nonsense! was followed by the Tom Jones collaboration "Kiss," a cover of the Prince song. It charted worldwide, reaching the Top Ten in the U.K. as well as the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. The Art of Noise released their fourth album, Below the Waste, in 1989 before temporarily disbanding. The group's groundbreaking experiments in sampling and mixing proved to be enormously influential on the emerging techno movement, and during the '90s the band's own material was itself sampled repeatedly.
Concurrently, Dudley remained a sought-after arranger, crafting hits including Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Two Tribes," Paul McCartney's "No More Lonely Nights," and Electronic's "Getting Away with It." In 1987, she began composing film scores with work on the comedies Hiding Out and Disorderlies. Her soundtrack to the Phil Collins vehicle Buster won a Brit Award the following year. After Art of Noise officially went on hiatus, Dudley collaborated with former Killing Joke frontman Jaz Coleman on the album Songs from the Victorious City, and a year later scored director Neil Jordan's acclaimed The Crying Game. The classical-minded solo album Ancient & Modern followed in early 1995, and in 1996 she conducted the hit production Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance. Dudley's score to the 1997 hit British comedy The Full Monty earned her an Oscar, and she joined Horn, Morley, and guitarist Lol Crème in a reunited Art of Noise the following year. They issued the concept album The Seduction of Claude Debussy on ZTT in 1999.
From 2000 onward, Dudley devoted most of her time to composing scores, but she also found time to release music of her own. 2001's A Different Light found her revisiting her work from the past, from the Art of Noise to her film scores. Following music for movies such as Bright Young Things (2003), Tristan & Isolde (2006), and The Walker (2007), she picked up the TV series Trial & Retribution (2008-2009) and Breathless (2013). Dudley received a BAFTA nomination for her work on TV's Poldark (2015-2019) in 2017. That year, Art of Noise reunited again, this time for a Pioneers of British Electronic Music concert at the Liverpool Sound City festival, and Dudley reinterpreted their hits for the piano on Plays the Art of Noise. Coinciding with Poldark's fifth and final season, Sony Classical issued Poldark: The Ultimate Collection in 2019.
Dudley kicked off the next decade with her music for the BBC One/FX miniseries Black Narcissus and ITV's The Singapore Grip, both of which aired in 2020. She wrote the score for director Paul Verhoeven's 2021 historical erotic film Benedetta, which she followed with work for the small screen including the Acorn TV/AMC detective series Signora Volpe (2022) and Netflix's Obsession (2023). In the meantime, she released a set of instrumental, piano-based music titled Crossing the Bar on the Buffalo Music label. Recorded with the Chamber Orchestra of London, her score for the 2023 Apple Original The Velveteen Rabbit appeared on Platoon Ltd. in late 2023.
© Jason Ankeny & Marcy Donelson /TiVo
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Discography
16 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Plays The Art Of Noise
Pop - Released by Universal-Island Records Ltd. on 24 May 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The World Of Jeeves And Wooster
Pop - Released by Parlophone UK on 30 Mar 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Benedetta (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Dubois Records on 25 Jan 2022
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Poldark - The Ultimate Collection (Music from TV Series 1-5)
TV Series - Released by Sony Classical on 12 Jul 2019
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Singapore Grip (Music from the TV Series)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Buffalo Music on 8 Sep 2020
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Velveteen Rabbit (Soundtrack from the Apple Original)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Platoon on 17 Nov 2023
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
A Different Light
Anne Dudley, The Quartet Of London
Humour/Spoken Word - Released by Angel Records on 1 Jan 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Poldark: Music from the TV Series (Deluxe Version)
TV Series - Released by Sony Classical on 8 Jun 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Songs From The Victorious City
Pop - Released by Rhino on 1 Jan 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Ancient and Modern
Anne Dudley, London Session Orchestra, Gavyn Wright
Classical - Released by Echo on 1 Jan 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Hustle (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Masterworks on 3 May 2019
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
The 10th Kingdom (Original Television Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Varese on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Monkeybone (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Varese Sarabande on 1 Jan 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -