Words by Ann Lee

Craig Armstrong has always been a bit of a night owl. But during the Covid-19 pandemic, unable to sleep, he found himself writing music until the early hours of the morning. Eventually, these songs would form his new album, Nocturnes: Music for Two Pianos, a stripped-back collection of quietly atmospheric piano-led melodies. “I started writing to take my mind off the crisis,” he says over Zoom. “Writing at three or four o'clock in the morning is a bit unusual and it must have affected the music to some degree. It's got a Zen quality.”

During the first lockdown in Scotland at the beginning of 2020, Armstrong would go for a late-night stroll and then start working when he got back. Creating the songs provided him an escape from the overwhelming sense of anxiety that had suddenly gripped the world. Sometimes, his daughter would keep him company but mostly he would work alone in his Glasgow studio. 

“Nocturnes comes from a long tradition of music that reflects the nighttime, all the way back to Mozart when pieces had to be performed at a particular time in the evening,” he explains. “Mine were written out of necessity because we were in lockdown. I realised that I was writing most of the pieces at night so the term Nocturnes became very appropriate.”

Despite his solitary experience creating the album, it was written to be performed on two pianos. The 62-year-old composer, who has created scores for Love Actually, The Incredible Hulk, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Bridget Jones's Baby, and Me Before You, hopes that it will be played as a collaborative piece one day. Armstrong wanted to conjure up an abstract feeling to each track, layering the pianos so that it would be difficult to work out which chord was coming from which instrument. 

“It's a very interesting thing to write pieces for two pianos. Usually, with piano duets, people are still playing that game of one piano is playing the bass and the middle harmonies, and the top piano is playing all the tricky lines. What was nice was just to forget all of that and explore what the possibilities of the sound world are with two pianos. It can create an incredible and beautiful effect.”

One of the most personal tracks on the album is Nocturnes 12, which was inspired by his grandmother’s music box. He can still remember its melody chiming clearly in his head. “She was actually quite strict. So it wasn't like you could just go in and open it. You'd have to ask her: ‘Is it okay if I play with your music box?’ It wasn't straightforward. When I wrote that piece, the atmosphere of it just reminded me of that time and the delicacy of the box.”

Armstrong was born in Shettleston, Glasgow. He was eight when his elderly aunt, who was completely blind, sat him down at the piano to teach him how to play. Even then he liked to improvise his own tunes. It wasn’t until much later that he realised that not everyone found creating music as easy as he did. “It's something I did all the time. But I didn't really think much of it. I just thought: ‘Everybody reads music.’” 

The musician also played violin and it was his teacher, Mrs Nelson, who first noticed his gift for composing. To get out of playing the songs that she wanted him to practice, he would bring in his own compositions instead and ask for her feedback. But classical music didn’t really feature in his dreams for the future. As a teenager, he wanted to be in a band. “I really wanted to go to art school. But I wasn't good at it. I thought: ‘Well, I'm pretty good at the piano.’ I'd written 10 compositions so I took them down to the Royal Academy of Music and they really liked them. So that was it.”

Armstrong studied composition, piano, and violin at the famous London music school. After he graduated, he enjoyed a stint as a jazz musician. He also became a member of several pop bands including Hipsway, The Big Dish, and Texas. But he struggled to make money writing classical music and would go around bars trying to find a job as a pianist. 

His lucky break came when Midge Ure came across one of his early independent records. He asked him to go on tour with him in 1985 and then with his band Ultravox the following year. But Armstrong's career really took off when he collaborated with legendary Bristol trip-hop band, Massive Attack, who later released his debut solo album, The Space Between, on their Melankolic record label.

“When Massive Attack started, they were really special,” he says. “I knew all of their records. I loved them. When they finally came to my door, it was through working with Nellee Hooper because I had done a lot of orchestral arrangements for him. He’s this incredible producer and personality.””

The composer arranged the title track on their 1994 album, Protection, as well as the song Sly. He also co-wrote and played piano on Weather Storm. Armstrong recalls the hot and humid summer when they would split their time between three studios in London with one of them, crammed full of records, designated as the writing studio. “You’re the first to hear tracks like Karmacoma, Protection, and Weather Storm. It was very exciting. I get goosebumps even thinking about it. They're incredible tracks and they became really iconic. 

“That in a way led to my work in film because U2 liked the stuff I did with Massive Attack.” Armstrong went on to work with lead singer Bono and guitarist The Edge on the theme song for 1995’s James Bond film, GoldenEye, which was performed by Tina Turner. 

Armstrong has been much in demand as a film composer. Michael Caine was such a huge fan of his work that he insisted that he was hired for The Quiet American. The musician has also collaborated with Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann three times on Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge! and The Great Gatsby. His score for Romeo + Juliet won him an Ivor Novello and Bafta while Moulin Rouge! earned him a Golden Globe. In 2005, he picked up a Grammy for his score for the musical biopic Ray. His track Escape from 1999’s historical comedy Plunkett & Macleane is used frequently in TV shows, film trailers, and sports events.

“Baz Luhrmann is quite hands-on,” he says. “He is an avid music fan. He loves all music. He creates this environment for everybody, where they feel they can do their best. That’s quite a special thing. The Baz films are a bit different because as you're writing, he's actually making them and he’s needing music to film to. Then you get someone like Oliver Stone [who he worked with on the disaster drama World Trade Center]. The script seems to be his main thing. He’s obsessed [with it]. So the music has to happen constructively as part of the script.”

Armstrong has also worked with many A-list pop stars. He has arranged strings on Madonna’s hit song Frozen, The Spice Girls’ 2 Become 1, and Hole’s Dying. Nocturnes: Music for Two Pianos is his ninth solo album. His second LP, As If to Nothing, featured collaborations from The Lemonheads frontman Evan Dando, Bono, and Mogwai. Brett Anderson from indie band Suede provided vocals for the track Crash on It's Nearly Tomorrow, his seventh album. The composer has always managed to seamlessly straddle both the classical and pop music world. 

“I've had quite an eclectic career. I've never not written classical music and I've never not been involved in the commercial arts. It's just always been together, really, in parallel from the age of 17. When you're talking about Baz Luhrmann, there's someone who does quite commercial films that are incredibly artistic. All the years I've worked with Massive Attack, they were incredible records to be involved in. I've got a soft spot for people who can do something that lots of people enjoy but there's a very high artistic bar. I think that's quite an interesting phenomenon if an artist can do that. Very few can.”

 What he enjoys most about film composing is the sense of collaboration and being part of a creative team that shapes the movie. “Working in film is a bit like being in a really good jazz band. The best films are. The bandleader tends to be the director but you’ve got a lot of freedom to flow in and out and try different solos. Good filmmakers tend to not be didactic. I mean, if they don't like something, they're not shy in telling you, but the good ones at least give you the impression that you're part of the band.”

In recent years, Armstrong has started to move away from film scoring as he accepts more classical commissions. He’s also been enjoying working on more independent movies like 2019’s The Burnt Orange Heresy, an Italian crime thriller. His last film as a composer was 2020’s The One and Only Ivan. "I haven't really made a conscious decision. Something like an arrangement for a big song like Miss Sarajevo for U2, there’s a good chance it might take four days to do it. Whereas, if someone commissions you to write a cello concerto or [working on] Nocturnes, you really don't know how long that's going to take so I started to cut down on the film work a little bit.”

When it comes to his own music, Armstrong still enjoys the freedom of exploring and creating, always eager to find new musical worlds that don't exist already. He talks about the moments when he returns home hoping to hear a particular song or album. “Then you can't find the CD or if you're on your phone, you can't find the track you really want.” His solution? Make the music himself. “Sometimes, I’ll write an album if I can't find that sort of journey. I think: ‘I'll just write something then.’” 

Unlike some other musicians, he doesn’t find inspiration around him. “There have been composers who write a piece based on a mountain or a seascape, I tend not to write like that.” He looks inward instead. What he’s looking for is to capture the sound of the feelings a melody inspires in him, an intangible thing made real. “It tends to be music for its own sake, just the sound of it, and the emotions that it creates.”

Nocturnes: Music for Two Pianos was his refuge as the world collapsed around him. He hopes that it can offer the listener a similar escape. “It is a very reflective record. There was a temptation during last year to write something dark. I decided against that because I thought things were bad enough. I wanted to write something beautiful and hopeful.”