Ilja composes, produces music and writes songs since his early twenties. Until mid of the 2010s he performed live as a songwriter, rock singer, pianist and classical chamber musician. Since then he focuses mainly on film music: 

Ilja, how do you breathe a musical soul into the picture?
From the beginning on I try to identify deeply with the characters and the story. The music should mirror their innermost world and thoughts, and becomes so to speak an auditive subtext.

What does the corporation with the filmmakers look like?
For starters I usually receive a raw cut or a written outline of the film. Already at the first screening I often get rough ideas of the sound direction, the instrumentation and energy. Sometimes I start creating a theme for one character or I make a sketch to illustrate the basic atmosphere of the film. In case the director is happy with that, the train starts rolling and I collect many musical sketches for the cutter to work with.

How do you find this basic atmosphere?
It depends on the story. It might need a cineastic, epic soundscape or a rather intimate chamber musical mood or modern pop, rock or electronic sounds or combinations. Often the director has  musical visions, which always take quite serious.

Where derives your fondness for classical instrumentations and electronic sounds from?
Good movies mostly deal with complex emotions and subjects. In order to do this justice it can help to play with alleged contradicting sounds. This can lead to unique suspense and intensity: either by contrasting the warm, organic sound of acoustic instruments and artificial-synthetical electronic sounds, or I interweave both, which disguises the actual source of sound and turn it into a new multi-layered sound world. That it is classical instruments and electronic sounds might derive from my early youth. As a young boy I couldn’t stop listening to the classical record collection of my opera-singer-grandpa. Right in time techno and electronic music came up when I turned old enough for clubbing, which inspired my deeply and sustainably. Everything after that such as working as a pianist, chamber musician, songwriter or band musician reflects that in a way.

What’s your greatest challenge in film music?
Probably to find the right balance. The music mustn’t be to prominent, it has to integrate. At the same time it should enrich, surprise and leave a lasting impression. It might help in this respect that I studied architecture. There I learnt to make art and aesthetics despite lots of constraints into something exciting and experienceable.

What makes a good film composer?
Most of all an own artistic signature and a good sense for the most suitable emotional world of sound as there are infinite possibilities. Apart from this obviously the compositional and technical craftsmanship to produce these in a convincing way.