David Lowe

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For other persons named David Lowe, see David Lowe (disambiguation).

David Lowe is a British composer, focusing primarily on music for television and radio. His work includes all the current themes for BBC News.

Other British television programmes include The One Show, Panorama, Ray Mears, Jeremy Clarkson, Wildlife on One, The Really Wild Show, Grand Designs on Channel 4 and the Five motoring programme 5th Gear. He has also created themes for the Al Arabiya Channel in Dubai, NDTV in India and TV2 in Norway. For Radio he produced the current identity for the BBC World Service.

In 1997, Lowe released his debut album Dreamcatcher. He performed a live mix that year at the first Thames River Festival, which accompanied a record breaking tightrope walk across the river.

His single "Would You...?" under the name Touch and Go was a top 3 hit in the UK in 1998 and a hit in the rest of Europe in early 1999. The album I've Noticed You Around spawned more hit singles in Eastern Europe and Russia. "Straight...to Number One" was chosen by Apple to launch the iTunes site in the USA, where every track on the album has been used in films, television and/or commercials.

Two CD's of Lowe's music have been released by the BBC. "BBC World The Music" is a compilation of some of Lowe's work for BBC World, made available after significant demand from viewers. "Wild Carribbean" features the best of Lowe's music from the BBC2 series of the same name, and remixes of his Touch and Go tracks "So Hot" and "Life's A Beach".

Through his website, Lowe has released compilations of some of his television soundtracks. "TV Chill" is a mix from a variety of different programmes, whilst "Grand Designs" features a full length arrangement of the main theme, and other music from the Channel 4 series. Both were produced after interest from viewers, including a request from one to have the Grand Designs music played at her wedding. Lowe also co-produced an album for poet Roger McGough. Between excerpts of McGough's live performance, he set some of the poetry to music.

Lowe was invited by the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters to compose the theme for the 50th Ivor Novello Awards ceremony in 2005. In 2006 he was commissioned to write the music for the BAFTA Film and Television Awards and for the BBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics.

He has performed at several WOMAD festivals worldwide. In 2004, he was commissioned by WOMAD to provide a music soundscape for The Tropical Biome at the Eden Project, which was performed at WOMAD Reading in 2005. Reinforced with several new songs, the material has been reworked to form his second Dreamcatcher album, "What...is In Between?", released on Oval Records in October 2006. Featured vocalists are poet and novelist Benjamin Zephaniah and Japanese artist and composer Mieko Shimizu, while Lowe himself sings on "Still The Greatest."

David Lowe is a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters. in 2005 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Staffordshire University.