“If a few more guitarists coaxed sounds like these out of their instruments, the history of rock and roll might have been very different.” - Nigel Lord, MusicTech Magazine on Alien Guitars

“Supporting performances by Christian Campbell, Heather Matarazzo and John Rothman add to the intriguing aura of this musical tale and the score of this story-within-a-story by Christopher Libertino superbly match the atmospheric layers of each increasingly tantalizing encounter that, ultimately, lead to her final composition.” - Peter Belsito, Medium.com on Her Composition

“She gets great help from Christopher Libertino’s sensitive score and Peter C. Frank’s wonderful editing, which merges the character’s interior and exterior worlds beautifully—a great feat, given that the two are practically symbiotic throughout the movie.” - Marilyn Moss, The Hollywood Reporter on Speak

“Highly recommended to those who enjoy the music made by the already mentioned acts such as Peter Gabriel, David Sylvian, Kate Bush, Thomas Dolby, David Bowie, Brian Eno and Bryan Ferry!” - Henri Strik, Background Magazine on Traveller

“Christopher Libertino is an electric guitar wizard who has experimented a great deal with guitar sounds over the years…Using the full emotional range of the guitar, Libertino creates a moving – and at times, disturbing and intense in a way that reminds me of Elliot Goldenthal’s Heat score – soundscape for the story to grow in.” - Mikael Carlsson, Music from the Movies on Speak

“There’s a pleasing gentleness to Traveller that is refreshing in that it isn’t trying to be brash or limelight stealing. It’s just gently and quietly what it is.” - Nell McLeod, Sound on Sound Magazine on Traveller

Award-winning composer, recording artist and guitarist Christopher Libertino believes in reaching deep and thinking sonically. Single notes in Libertino’s works carry immense weight while common instruments often don’t sound at all as expected. As a true devotee of musical ambience Libertino uses texture and musical deconstruction to bend our view of the world, usually gently, sometimes with significant force. His composition work breaks music down into its primal elements, reassembling them with stylistic agnosticism into almost anything, while sometimes taking a pass on reassembling them at all. It is that elemental view that distinguishes Libertino’s work - viewers feel first, think second, and later on, realize how the score moved them so greatly.

Libertino received his degree in music from Harvard University, having studied with Ivan Tcherepnin, Luise Vosgerchian, John Stewart and Curtis Roads. He then completed post-graduate musical studies at Berklee School of Music. His most recent orchestral work, To Remember and Let Go, had its world premiere in 2016 at Symphony Hall in Boston; Keith Lockhart conducted the Boston Pops Orchestra.

With over 50 scores to his credit, Libertino has reached a worldwide audience with such films as Speak (2004 Sundance Feature), The Wormhole (2002 Academy Award Gold Medal) and Repetition Compulsion (1999 Emmy Nomination.) His music has accompanied extraordinary performances from such actors as Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg, Steve Zahn, James Caan and Peter Dinklage. His own brand of literate, atmospheric art rock features altered guitar work which serves as the cornerstone of his own albums – Epitaph, Caprice, Unspoken and Traveller. His unique effects-based approach to textural electronic guitar can be heard on numerous remixes (Gwen Stefani, Roxy Music and Duran Duran), film/TV scores (28 Days Later, Aeon Flux, Ghost in the Shell, Underworld, Six Feet Under, CSI: Miami) and albums (Annie Lennox–Bare).

What really sets Christopher Libertino’s music apart is its holistic nature. When accompanying a film it seems impossible to think of the music as having preexisted the scene or as having been added to it at some abstract juncture. Instead, Libertino’s music seems inseparable from its surroundings, appearing intrinsically woven into them and striking a direct line into the listeners’ synapses, as though Libertino composes not with notes but with neurological impulses. It is music that is vividly transparent, but also, not transparent at all.

AWARDS

DAVID McCORD PRIZE FOR EXCELLENCE IN MUSIC
Harvard University
DEAN’S CRAFT AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN ORIGINAL SCORE (1997, 1998, 2001)
Tisch School of the Arts at NYU

SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY

SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY

THEATER

GAMES

SOUND DESIGN