John Parish has been a busy man since his last release on Thrill Jockey Records, Once Upon A Little Time, (Thrill 157, 2005). After producing and performing on PJ Harvey’s Mercury Prize-winning Let England Shake (2011), he completed the soundtracks for several European films including the critically acclaimed Sister (2012), produced albums for numerous artists including Rokia Traore, from Mali, and Norwegian avant garde artist Jenny Hval, both due out this year.

Parish is best known for his work with the acclaimed British artist PJ Harvey, which dates back to when she was backing singer and guitarist in his cult band Automatic Dlamini. He is also an accomplished composer, solo artist, and producer. Parish co-wrote and performed on Eels’ 2001 album Souljacker, and has worked with Sparklehorse, 16 Horsepower, Tracy Chapman, Adrian Utley and Howe Gelb/Giant Sand, among many others.

Parish has been composing film scores since 1998, starting with Patrice Toye’s debut film Rosie. While a couple of his scores have been released as Original Soundtracks, Screenplay is the first that brings his film work into clear focus. He explains: “Rather than release each one as a ‘Soundtrack to…’ it might be an interesting idea to try and compile an album with the highlights from several movies, something that would be a good listen regardless of whether you have seen the films”.

So Screenplay was born, a collection of scores that captures the beauty of each film giving listeners the sense of the atmosphere without having seen them.

Screenplay draws from several Parish scores including Nowhere Man, Plein Sud, Sister (original title L’enfant d’en Haut) and Patrice Toye’s latest film Little Black Spiders. Sister, directed by Ursula Meier, won the special Silver Bear at the 2012 Berlin Film Festival, and was shortlisted for Best Foreign Language Film at this year’s Oscars. With the amount of music he had written, it was a lengthy process selecting them for Parish, who wanted the album to have its own distinct identity.