Johnny Klimek (born 18 August 1962) is an Australian musician, music producer, and composer,[1][2] best known for his innovative work in the underground electronica music scene[1] and for his film scores.[3]

Johnny Klimek
Background information
Born (1962-08-18) 18 August 1962 (age 61)
Melbourne, Australia
GenresFilm score, electronic
Occupation(s)Musician, composer, record producer
InstrumentsKeyboards, synthesizer, guitar
Years active1997-present

Life and career edit

Klimek was born in Melbourne, Australia. His mother, Luisa née Cester (born 29 January 1916 in Pasiano di Pordenone) was a daughter of the couple Eugenia and Ernesto Cester. In the summer of 1940, she left Friuli Venezia Giulia for Australia. After the Second World War, she married Alfons Klimek (died 1998) and gave birth to eight children: Eugenia, Lydia, Naomi (born 1953), Greta, Alfons junior, Robert, and twins Jayney and Johnny (born August 1962).[4] Her sister, Fanny Cester, emigrated to Australia in 1937 and married racing cyclist Nino Borsari in 1940. The Klimek family lived in various Melbourne suburbs including Kew, Oakleigh and, from 1969, Clayton. Klimek's younger cousins, Nic and Chris Cester, were founding mainstays of Australian hard rocker band, Jet (2001–12).[4]

Johnny worked in a number of local garage bands before emigrating to Berlin in 1983, where he started the pop rock band The Other Ones with his sister Jayney and brother Alf. He became active in the Berlin underground trance/ambient/techno scene, and collaborated with Paul Browse of the band Clock DVA on a short-lived musical project, Effective Force.[5][6] He served as the bass player for singer Nina Hagen's 1996 tour.[5]

Klimek has produced numerous film scores with composer Reinhold Heil,[3][7] beginning with the 1997 film Winter Sleepers. Since then, they have become regular collaborators of its director, Tom Tykwer, and have provided the score to almost all of his films since, including the score to Perfume, Story Of A Murderer. Klimek, Heil, and Tykwer were nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score[8] for their critically acclaimed score to the latter's 2012 epic science fiction film Cloud Atlas. He has also worked on television series such as Without a Trace, Deadwood, The Newsroom, and Sense8, thriller films such as Run Lola Run and One Hour Photo, horror films such as Land of the Dead and Blood & Chocolate, and action films like Killer Elite and I, Frankenstein. He has won 5 ASCAP Awards, and has been nominated for 2 Saturn Awards, and for 1 Primetime Emmy Award.[3]

Filmography edit

Feature films edit

Year Title Director Notes
1997 Winter Sleepers Tom Tykwer
1998 Run Lola Run
1999 Paradise Mall [de] Friedemann Fromm
2000 Ants in the Pants Marc Rothemund
The Princess and the Warrior Tom Tykwer
Bundle of Joy [de] Detlev Buck
2001 Tangled Jay Lowi
2002 One Hour Photo Mark Romanek
Bang Bang You're Dead Guy Ferland
2003 Swimming Upstream Russell Mulcahy
2004 Iron Jawed Angels Katja von Garnier
2005 Sophie Scholl – The Final Days Marc Rothemund
The Cave Bruce Hunt
Land of the Dead George A. Romero
Deck Dogz Steve Pasvolsky
2006 Perfume: The Story of a Murderer Tom Tykwer
2007 Blood & Chocolate Katja von Garnier
Anamorph Henry S. Miller
2008 Blackout Steve Pasvolsky
One Missed Call Eric Valette
2009 The International Tom Tykwer
2010 Stronger Than Blood [de] Oliver Kienle
Three Tom Tykwer
Tomorrow, When the War Began Stuart Beattie
2011 Alien Exorcism Varo Venturi
Killer Elite Gary McKendry
2012 Cloud Atlas Lana Wachowski
Tom Tykwer
Lilly Wachowski
Open Heart Kief Davidson Short film
2013 Wolf Creek 2 Greg McLean
2014 I, Frankenstein Stuart Beattie
Kill Me Three Times Kriv Stenders
2016 A Hologram for the King Tom Tykwer
Lord of Shanghai Sherwood Hu
The Darkness Greg McLean
2017 This Crazy Heart Marc Rothemund
Jungle Greg McLean
This Is Congo Daniel McCabe
2018 Breaking In James McTeigue
2021 The Matrix Resurrections Lana Wachowski Themes by Don Davis,
Composed with Tom Tykwer
2023 Weekend Rebels Marc Rothemund Composed with Hans Hafner

Television edit

Year Title Notes
2002 Without a Trace 6 episodes
2004–2006 Deadwood 31 episodes
2007 John from Cincinnati 10 episodes
2008 The Two Mr. Kissels Television film
2011 Locke & Key Television pilot
2012 Awake 12 episodes
2013 The Newsroom 13 episodes
2014 Mind Games
2015–2018 Sense8 24 episodes
2017–2020 Babylon Berlin 28 episodes
2019 Jett 9 episodes
2020 Messiah 10 episodes

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Johnny Klimek _ Film Music : Ecko Productions » Biography". www.eckoproductions.com. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
  2. ^ "Johnny Klimek on Apple Music". iTunes. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
  3. ^ a b c "Johnny Klimek _ Film Music : Ecko Productions » Filmography". www.eckoproductions.com. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
  4. ^ a b Camillo, Laurence. "The Cester Family". l-camillo.com. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  5. ^ a b "Johnny Klimek _ Film Music : Ecko Productions » Discography". www.eckoproductions.com. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
  6. ^ "Effective Force - Illuminate The Planet". Discogs. 1993. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
  7. ^ "Reinhold Heil". reinholdheil.com. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
  8. ^ http://www.goldenglobes.com/person/tom-tykwer-johnny-klimek-reinhold-heil. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links edit