Guy Lochhead, 11/09/10
French composer of film music. De Roubaix was a self-taught musician who began playing trombone by ear after becoming interested in jazz, aged 15. He soundtracked his father’s educational films and then moved on to compose for all manner of moving images. He often combined pre-recorded classical elements with early drum machines and synthesisers, which has led to many of his songs being sampled in second generation hip hop tracks. He died in a diving accident, aged 36. De Roubaix’s soundtracks are great, but not that great. He was pioneering, but not that pioneering. Even if I was to include some of his music, I would not do so independently of the film it was meant for, and so would have to consider the content of that too. I will look at the directors he worked with and consider them for inclusion, but I don’t want to include de Roubaix alone. Soundtracking is interesting thing that is often passive out of necessity. That’s kind of weird, related to the programmes’ intentions.