Profile
Mark recently premiered his symphony ‘Sound of Light’ inspired by the northern lights & composed in collaboration with Artificial intelligence at Brahms Saal, Musikverein, Vienna.
The orchestra driven piece mixed with experimental visual driven synththesis techniques was broadcast live around the world and was the final stage of a 2 month long odyssey from deep in the arctic circle though to Cambridge, London and finally Vienna.
Marks instinctive desire to experiment between genres and arts has been prevalent throughout his career.
This journey from record producer & in-house writer for Jive records, to recording artist signed to Heavenly/EMI records , and through to film composer has provided him with a broad palette of experience to craft from.
He recently finished scoring Darren Lynn Bousman’s (director of the SAW sequels fame) latest film ‘Death of Me’ starring Luke Hemsworth and Maggie Q, due out in early 2021.
Previous to that he wrote the original music for ‘Snatch’, a 10 part series for Sony Pictures/Crackle based on Guy Ritchie’s original film starring Rupert Grint (Harry Potter) and Dougray Scott (Mission Impossible III). He also recently scored ‘St Agatha’, a female driven “nunsploitation” horror thriller also directed by Darren Lynn Bousman starring Carolyn Hennesey (Terminator 3-Rise of the Machines) which is currently garnering fantastic reviews and has secured worldwide distribution.
Other notable feature films include Bousmans horror noir opus ‘Abattoir’( Lin Shaye / Jessica Lowndes), ‘Dark Tide’ (Halle Berry / Olivier Martinez), ‘Dead Man Running’ (50Cent / Brenda Blethyn) and ‘Devil You Know’ (Rosamund Pike / Jennifer Lawrence / Lena Olin).
The Story...
After starting to learn piano from the tender age of 4 Mark became obsessed with writing music and synthesisers very early on. As a teenager he wrangled his way into the flourishing hit factory that was Battery Studios & Jive Records where he began to develop his career as a coffee boy assistant come programmer/producer/composer, working with a wide variety of pioneering artists such as BDP, Tribe Called Quest, Womack & Womack and a host of other soul, hip-hop and dance related acts. By the time he was 22 he had co-written on multi-Gold selling albums in the UK, Europe & the US.
After spending time in Africa as a child, when asked to record and mix concerts out in West Africa he jumped at the scent of adventure and spent a few years out there mixing and recording live festivals. He got to work with Fela Kuti at the infamous shrine, produced live albums with Femi Kuti, King Sunny Ade, and many other world renowned African artists. After briefly being hospitalised with sawi sawi fever he decided to step back from his African adventures and concentrate on his passion, writing and producing.
He became Musical Director for Nicolette ex Massive Attack and then right hand man for Goldie (of Drum & Bass fame) and joined forces on 3 albums including the gold selling ‘Saturns Return’ and ‘Mother’ that included collaborations with David Bowie, Noel Gallagher & KRS One. They subsequently went on to perform those albums across festivals around the world and toured with Janes Addiction on their infamous ‘Relapse’ US arena tour. That 46 city extravaganza was captured in all its dark glory in the movie ‘Three Days’ which ‘pulled no punches’ and went on the win the New York Film Festival’s Best music Documentary grand prize.
Mark went on to perform live and collaborate with Ian Brown (Stone Roses) co-writing tracks on the multi gold selling solo album ‘Music of the Spheres’.
Sayfritz went on to write and Co-produce with Nigel Godrich (of Radiohead and Atoms for Peace fame) his own solo album with his band DOG called ‘Neverland’ on Heavenly / EMI records, featuring guest appearances by legendary ‘The Who’ guitarist Pete Townshend. One of the songs ‘War’ has been regularly covered live by electronic punk gods The Prodigy.
Neverland was critically acclaimed and was used in numerous films and advertising campaigns which led to directors requesting Marks help scoring.
A decade later with 20+ feature films under his belt Mark continues to score and sound design in the advertising arena and has become a regular collaborator with acclaimed photographer turned director Rankin. In 2022 he wrote the music for both of the UK’s National Health Service TV and radio campaigns to raise awareness about Heart attack & Cancer.
His music and sound design for the KP / NBA campaign ‘Overcome’ with Stephen Curry was nominated for the prestigious CLIO Award and Jerry Goldsmith Award. Sayfritz has won the following awards in the advertising area:
New York Advertising Festival (x2), D&AD pencil, BTAA Silver Arrow, CLIO Awards for best music/sound design and EFFIE France awards for campaigns with AUDI, NIKE, LEVI’S, NBA, and REEBOK.
RECENT FILM, TV & GAME CREDITS
Death of Me ( release due start 2020 )
Director – Darren Lynn Bousman
Starring Luke Hemsworth & maggie Q
Deadtectives
Director – Tony West
Starring Martha Higareda & Chris Geere
St Agatha
Director – Darren Lynn Bousman
Starring Carolyn Hennesy
Snatch ( 10 part TV series 2017) – Composer
Show Creator – Alex De Rakoff
Starring Rupert Grint / Dougray Scott / Luke Pasqualino
Sony Pictures /Crackle
Abattoir
Director – Darren Lynn Bousman
Starring Lin Shaye & Jessica Lowndes
Universal Pictures
Hardwire
Director – Rankin
Starring Laura Haddock, Mark Warren & Toby Jones
Rankin Film
The Briny
Director – Lucy Kirkwood
Starring Francesca Annis & Stephen Campbell Moore.
DNA Films
Transformers Universe (game)- Sound design / Additional Music
Creative directors – Alex Horton / Alex De Rakoff
Hasbro / Jagex Games
63 lbs
Director – Arran Bowyn
Starring – Michael Madsen
Jonah ( Nominated for “Best short” at the BIFA & Sundance)
Director – Kibwe Tavares
Starring Daniel Kaluuya
Film 4
Dark Tide
Director – John Stockwell
Starring Halle Berry & Olivier Martinez
Alliance Cinema
Devil You Know – Composer & Sound Design
Director – James Oakely
Starring Rosamund Pike, Lena Olin & Jennifer Lawrence
Roger Films
The Great Ghost Rescue
Director – Yann Samuell
Starring Kevin McKidd, Jason Issacs & Georgia Groome
Good Films
Dead Man Running
Director – Alex De Rakoff
Starring 50 Cent, Brenda Blethyn, & Tamer Hassan
Revolver Films
The Shepherd: Border Patrol
Director – Issac Florentine
Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme & Scott Adkins
Sony Pictures
Until Death
Director – Simon Fellows
Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme & Stephen Rea
Sony Pictures
Second In Command
Director – Simon Fellows
Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme & Razaak Adoti
Sony Pictures
Dark Ride – Sound Design & Additional Composition
Director – Craig Singer
Jamie-Lynn Sigler & Patrick Renna
Lionsgate
Matrioshki - TV Series
Director - Guy Goossens
High Fidelity – Songs
Touchstone / Buena Vista Films
CSI:Miami – Songs
CBS TV (USA)
Nip Tuck – Songs
NBC TV (USA)
NFL – Tracks
US TV Promotion
COMMERCIALS – COMPOSER & SOUND DESIGN
“Overcome” NBA / Kaiser Permanente – Starring Steph Curry (Nominated for Clio best Sound Design & Jerry Goldsmith World Soundtrack Award)
Audi “Heartbeat” – Winner “Clio Award” best Sound Design
Audi – “Bull” (World) - Winner D&AD Silver Pencil, & BTAA Silver Arrow for “Outstanding Sound Design”
Apple/Beats – Beats Wireless 3 headphones (4 separate films)
Nike “Savage Beauty” 2016 – Directed by Rankin, starring Cristiano Ronaldo
Nike “Rugby World cup” (France)
Macallan Whisky – Directed by Rankin
Absolut & Deadmou5 2016- Virtual Reality movie 2016
Ford Mustang – Directed by Rankin, starring Sienna Miller
Mumm Sparkling Wine – Re-arrangement / orchestration of Hans Zimmer’s theme for TV campaigns.
Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut Cornflakes (UK & Ireland)
Vertu – composing all ringtones & alerts for the ”Constellation” phone (using the London Symphony Orchestra)
Movistar – (Spain, Central & South America )
Li Ning – (China)
Ocean Spray (UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Holland)
Vodafone (UK)
Vicks (Germany / Holland / Italy)
Canon (UK & Europe)
Audi – “Selective Memory” (France)
Jaguar (World)
Levi’s (World)
Xbox (Europe)
Nokia (World)
Reebok (USA)
NFL (USA)
Uk Gov -Home Office (UK)
LIVE SHOWS / RELEASES
The Sound of Light Symphony - Brahms Saal, Musikvarein, Vienna.
Written & performed by Mark Sayfritz with the Syncronsound Orchestra, solo voice by Heidi Kilpeläinen.
Abattoir – Movie soundtrack – Atlantic Screen (2017)
“Dive” - album on PaleBlue Records (2012)
“Neverland” - album EMI / Heavenly
“Jerusalem” - single feat Pete Townshend EMI / Heavenly
“Bitten” - single EMI / Heavenly
Dog performed with Cypress Hill and Asian Dub Foundation, and at Glastonbury Festival, T In The Park, Reading Festival and the V Festival on a UK Festival Tour.