Russell "Russ" Landau composed and scored the "Ancient Voices" theme that precedes every Survivor episode. Along with being a former composer for Survivor and its various tracks, he was also close friends with Executive Producer Mark Burnett. He left in 2013 after Survivor: Blood vs. Water.
Biography[]
Retrieved from Last.fm
Russell Landau is a composer of film and television scores and themes including Survivor and Fear Factor.
After completing university, Russ Landau moved to New York City, where he worked as a session musician and joined the Paul Winter Consort as their bassist. For more than a decade he traveled the world as a bassist, and as a producer of more than ten albums by the group helping Winter earn a Grammy. He went on to produce recordings for many other artists, ranging from blues rocker South Side Johnny to Irish vocalist Nóirín Ní Riain.
Working in his Greenwich Village studio, he scored numerous projects including a short HBO film called Cat and Mousse, which was nominated for the Grand Prize in Short Films at the Cannes Film Festival. Later, he moved to Los Angeles, California to focus on film and television scoring.
His first regular episodic scoring assignment was Steven Spielberg's SeaQuest DSV. He was then hired to write the opening theme and score to SeaQuest 2032, which led to his first Emmy nomination. Subsequently, Landau began working on such television projects as the CBS series Moloney, FOX's Fire Co. 132, CBS's Four Corners and the USA Network series The Net, before landing Survivor. As a result of signing on with Survivor, another major milestone in Landau's career came with his second Emmy nomination for its theme, "Ancient Voices," in 2001.
Russ Landau has themed and scored many prime time series including Eco Challenge for USA, Fear Factor (1, 2, 3 and 4) for NBC, Survivor, Survivor UK for ITV based out of London, Combat Missions for USA, Prehistoric Planet (NBC), Anything for Love (FOX), NBC's America's Most Talented Kid, Dog Eat Dog, The Restaurant 1 & 2, Average Joe, Three Wishes, Game Show Marathon, The Assistant, National Bingo Night, Pirates, and many others.
His feature film résumé includes such indie titles as the 1998 Jennifer Love Hewitt romance Telling You, the thriller Nowhere Land, Killer Bud, Love and Action In Chicago, Superfire, Racehoss or The Life and times of Albert "Racehoss" Sample, and the film Lost (2005).
In addition to his film and television his work, Landau composed the underscore for the CD & museum book: "Dinosongs: Poems to Celebrate A T-Rex Named Sue," narrated by Susan Sarandon and written by Kevin Krotty, which earned him another Grammy nomination. He has donated composing services to the Make A Wish Foundation and the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund, for which he wrote the opening theme music of their website.[1]
Survivor[]
Russ had been composing music since the show's inception in 2000. Despite composing several "much more blockbuster movie-sounding" opening themes, his signature track, "Ancient Voices", was chosen as the opening for its "Lord of The Flies vibe", despite the track itself being composed by him before Survivor had even been a concept. Along with this, him and David Vanacore composed the rest of the show's background themes. Russ would visit the countries Survivor are filmed in to draw inspiration from the locals.
Russ also composed Awakenings, the title theme for the British version of the show, which has been used by some other versions of the show which opted not to use Ancient Voices.
As of 2013, Russ is no longer involved in the show, but left "a vast amount of music" that Survivor still uses to this day.[2] Because of this, his name remains in the show's end credits.
Post-Survivor[]
Russ continues to work within the music industry. He is also a licensed pilot.
Trivia[]
- Following Russ's exit after Survivor: Blood vs. Water, opening sequences for subsequent seasons have reused or remixed past renditions of "Ancient Voices".
- Russ is also behind the music used in other television series, notably Survivor's sister series Pirate Master, which won an Emmy Award in 2008 for "Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music".[3]
References[]
| Survivor (U.S.) Personnel |
|---|
| Bruce Beresford-Redman · Charlie Parsons · David Vanacore · Jeff Probst · Joe Rowles · John Kirhoffer · Lynne Spillman · Mark Burnett · Matt Van Wagenen · Ramona Salins · Russ Landau · Survivor Production Team |