Saunder Jurriaans

Saunder Jurriaans, an American composer and multi-instrumentalist, has earned his widest recognition through the film, television, and video game scores he has created with longtime collaborator Danny Bensi. The pair first played together in the indie rock outfits Tarantula A.D. and its later incarnation Priestbird before making their feature debut at Cannes in 2010 with the soundtrack to Two Gates of Sleep. Their lean, unsettling music for the 2011 drama Martha Marcy May Marlene drew attention across the festival circuit and opened doors to further suspense projects such as Enemy in 2013 and The Gift two years later. Although they remain most closely identified with taut, off-center chamber textures, their output has also encompassed the 2015 family drama Jack of the Red Hearts, the 2017 action title For Honor, and the fantasy series American Gods.

Prior to entering screen work, Jurriaans on guitar and bass joined Bensi on strings, piano, and voice plus drummer Gregory Rogove to launch the orchestral art-rock ensemble Tarantula A.D. in New York. The group issued its sole album, Book of Sand, on Kemado Records in 2005, then reconstituted itself as the neo-prog trio Priestbird. That lineup delivered In Your Time, again for Kemado, in 2007 and subsequently toured across North America and Europe before self-releasing the 2011 follow-up Beachcombers.

While still active in bands, Bensi and Jurriaans increasingly devoted time to scoring commercials, shorts, and documentaries. Their earliest features, Two Gates of Sleep and Finding Virginia, both appeared in 2010. Subsequent thriller assignments included Martha Marcy May Marlene in 2011, Simon Killer the next year, and Enemy in 2013, the last of which earned them the Canadian Screen Award for Best Musical Score.

Maintaining a schedule that produced at least a dozen projects annually through 2016, the duo scored A Good Marriage and The One I Love in 2014, then Nasty Baby, The Benefactor, and Jason Bateman’s The Gift in 2015. Their 2016 slate featured the crime dramas Frank & Lola and The Autopsy of Jane Doe plus the documentary Amanda Knox.

Expanding across formats and styles, Bensi and Jurriaans supplied music for the Jason Bateman series Ozark in 2017 and 2018, the documentary LA 92, and the game For Honor. Varèse Sarabande released their scores for the 2014 romantic comedy 5 to 7 and the Netflix biopic Barry that same year. The 2018 thriller Siberia followed, along with the biographical drama Boy Erased, whose soundtrack appeared on Back Lot Music. In 2019 they joined the second season of the Starz series American Gods, and Milan issued the corresponding American Gods: Season 2 album before year’s end.