Reinhold Heil | |
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 Heil in 2015 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | (1954-05-18)18 May 1954 (age 70) Schlüchtern,Hesse,West Germany (present-day Germany) |
| Occupation(s) | Musician,film composer, music producer |
| Years active | 1974–present |
| Member of | |
| Formerly of | |
Reinhold Heil (born 18 May 1954) is a German musician, producer, and film and televisioncomposer. He initially achieved success in Germany as a member of thepost-punk andNeue Deutsche Welle groupsNina Hagen Band,Spliff andNena, and later as a music producer.
As a film composer, he is known for his collaborations with directorTom Tykwer, on films such asRun Lola Run (1998),Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006),The International (2009), andCloud Atlas (2012). His television credits include the seriesDeadwood (2004–06). He often works with Australian composerJohnny Klimek.
Heil was born inSchlüchtern, in the state ofHesse,West Germany. He grew up twenty meters from Schlüchtern's 10th century monastery, where he was introduced to classical music. Heil learned to play church organ at a young age and in adolescence began training to become a pianist. In his teenage years, Heil's father, who owned the town's only record and hi-fi store, put Heil in charge of selecting all the records sold in his store, inadvertently giving Heil access to the most influential pop music of the times. Heil eagerly immersed himself in rock, soul, jazz, and electronic music.
After graduating from high school in the mid-1970s, Heil left Schlüchtern forWest Berlin. At the time,West Berlin was an island of western culture isolated in the middle of communistEast Germany and a fertile breeding ground for experimentation and artistic and political self-expression.
While a student at the Berlin Music Academy, Heil supplemented his studies of classical music with studies inmusique concrète and early electronic music. He was deeply influenced by pioneering jazz and rock musicians such asMiles Davis andFrank Zappa.
In 1977, Heil met a dissident artist from communistEast Germany, the youngNina Hagen, who was electrifying Berlin's punk world with her powerful operatic voice and genre-defying musical style. Hagen asked Heil to join her band as her keyboardist, co-writer and co-producer and for the next few years Heil honed his craft what became the legendaryNina Hagen Band.
After Hagen left the group to pursue a solo career, the remaining band members formedSpliff, one of Germany's most successful rock bands of the 1980s. In the 1980s and 1990s, Heil was widely regarded as one of the best keyboardists in Europe. He is also known as the producer of GermanNeue Deutsche Welle bandNena's albums and singles, including the hit songs "99 Luftballons" (1983) and "Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann" (1984).[1]
In 1994, Heil became friends with Australian expat and bass playerJohnny Klimek, a producer of Berlin underground techno DJs. What began as a casual partnership producing trip hop tunes in a Berlin studio, led Heil and Klimek to collaborating with German directorTom Tykwer on scoring Tykwer's second feature,Winter Sleepers. Two years later, the trio scored Tykwer's breakthrough hit,Run Lola Run and all Tykwer's subsequent films throughCloud Atlas (with the exception ofHeaven in 2002).
Heil moved to California in 1997 and Klimek followed him three years later. The international success ofRun Lola Run, which came out in the US in 1999, got Hollywood's attention.Run Lola Run's soundtrack album sold half a million copies worldwide, with 50% of those sales occurring in the US. These were huge numbers for a soundtrack album, let alone a subtitled German-language movie.Run Lola Run was the first film to have a techno score that was not composed of pre-existing music, but was scored directly to picture.
Heil and Klimek continued their film scoring collaboration for a dozen years on such varied projects asOne Hour Photo,The International,Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, HBO’sDeadwood, CBS’sWithout a Trace, NBC’sAwake and the epic adventure dramaCloud Atlas, based on a best selling novel byDavid Mitchell, directed byThe Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer. The score forCloud Atlas was nominated in 2013 for aGolden Globe award.
In 2011, Heil and Klimek ended their musical partnership though they continued to collaborate on selected projects, most notably for director Tom Tykwer onCloud Atlas (2012) and director Stuart Beattie's feature,I, Frankenstein (2014).
Heil's distinctive musical signature is characterized by harmonic complexity, memorable and unusual chord progressions, and surprising juxtapositions of organic and electronic custom sounds, which he creates using his large collection of obscure musical instruments, as well as vintage and cutting edge computer software.
In 2016, Heil was awarded theAdolf Grimme Award for his exceptional original music score to the RTL and Sundance TV produced television seriesDeutschland 83.
Heil is represented by Fortress Talent Management.[2][3][4][5]
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