Silva Screen

Ian Arber’s electro-acoustic soundtrack to Acorn TV’s original drama ‘The Chelsea Detective’ starring Adrian Scarborough (Gosford Park, Gavin & Stacey, Killing Eve) as DI Max Arnold and Sonita Henry (Luther, Krypton) as DI Priya Shamsie.

The Chelsea Detective journeys through a diverse cross-section of Chelsea London life, spanning the mansions of the super-rich to the council flats of the World’s End Estate, and the rarefied corridors of a prestigious international school to the leafy melancholy of Brompton Cemetery and the bustle of the King’s Road. The series is written by Glen Laker (Vera, Prime Suspect), Peter Fincham and Liz Lake (Riviera, Call the Midwife).

Ian Arber’s nuanced soundtrack spotlights the timeless piano and cello theme against the pulsating strings and electronics. The gorgeous modal motif keeps recurring, in different variations, with the sound expanding and contracting. Navigating nostalgia and pensiveness, Arber creates a sense of covert anxiety against a backdrop of beauty, bolstering the dark undertones of the Chelsea story lines.

Ian Arber is a classically trained film and television composer, proficient in cello, piano, bass, electric and acoustic guitar, and music production. He is known for his work on Netflix original’s The One (2021) and Medici (2018), BBC One thriller The Capture (2019), The BBC Proms Theme (2019-), My Name Is Lenny (2017) starring John Hurt, award-winning documentaries After The Screaming Stops and I Am Bolt (2016), and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015).