About
Mikael Hellman
I have been writing cinematic music since 1990, mostly alone, and lately with a computer that has opinions.
I write emotional orchestral and hybrid scores that sit between organic instrumentation and modern sound design, built around tension, contrast and atmosphere rather than background filler. Most of it starts at a piano, or with one stubborn phrase that will not leave me alone, and gets arranged outwards from there.
Why it is all free
Because the alternative never appealed to me. I am not going to make a living from a music library, and gating the catalogue behind a licence tier would mostly mean fewer films get scored. So every track here is free to download and free to use, including in work you are paid for. The only condition is credit.
No account, no email, no cart, no trial that expires. If that sounds like there must be a catch, the licence page spells out exactly what you may do, in plain language.
How a track gets made
I play a sketch: piano, strings, whatever it started as. Sometimes that sketch becomes the track. Sometimes I hand it to Lennart 3000, who takes it somewhere I would not have gone, and I take back the half that was a good idea. Either way I do the arrangement and the master myself, and the credit on the track says which of the two it was.
Getting in touch
If a credit is impossible for your medium, or a track throws up a copyright claim it should not, write to me and I will sort it out. I would also genuinely like to hear what you used it for.