Original score from the 2025 documentary feature film directed by John Dower, produced by Anonymous Content, Red Bull Studios and Rise Films, released by Dogwoof (UK).

THE STORY: Follows the improbable team of Piccard and Jones, who competed against the world’s finest pilots and extremely wealthy adventurers in 1999 to become the first individuals to fly a hot air balloon around the globe nonstop.

THE SCORE: “Our score for John Dower’s brilliant film The Balloonists blends orchestral scale, sweeping melodies, quirky woodwind and textural synths. The film tells the story of Bertrand Picard and Brian Jones’ extraordinary attempts to be the first to travel around the world in a hot air balloon in 1999.  It’s a rollicking adventure story, but at the film’s heart is Brian’s relationship with his wife, Joanna, and the tension in Picard and Jones’ relationship – built on trust and mutual respect – between two very different people. We wanted to represent the fun, the heart and the tension musically, while keeping a through line of adventure and the nerve and bravery of attempting to succeed at this legendary Last Big Adventure.” – Nick Foster & Sam Thompson

THE COMPOSERS: Nick Foster is a multiple BAFTA-winning composer of music for television, film and games. Notable recent work includes The Twister: Caught in the Storm for Netflix, Sam Hobkinson’s Lover Stalker Killer for Netflix/Curious Films, Sally Wainwright’s Disney+ adventure drama Renegade Nell, and Kayleigh Llewellyn’s coming-of-age story In My Skin (Expectation/BBC). Documentary work includes Trainwreck : The Astroworld Tragedy), John Dower’s The Man Who Definitely Didn’t Steal Hollywood, All or Nothing: Arsenal and 7/7 : Homegrown Terror. He is also known for his work on the long-running animated series Thunderbirds Are Go, on which Nick collaborated with brother Ben Foster, and for which they were BAFTA, MAS and BAA-nominated. In film, Nick scored Sam Hobkinson’s feature documentary Misha and the Wolves, and scored and arranged songs for Coky Giedroyc’s 2023 movie musical Greatest Days, based on the iconic songs of Take That, with Oli Julian. His music also features in Ryan Gosling’s Blue Valentine. Nick works in video games, scoring Sackboy: A Big Adventure, which received a BAFTA Games Awards nomination for Best Music.

Sam Thompson is an Emmy-nominated film composer from Preston, Lancashire, UK. Best known for his scores for the BAFTA-winning comedy drama Juice, Emmy-nominated JFK: One Day in America, and his collaborative scores with Amelia Warner including the feature dramas Mr Malcolm’s List and Young Woman and the Sea, Sam is a sensitive and collaborative composer, specialising in contemporary orchestral, vocal composition and electronic scores. In television, Sam has grown an impressive list of credits including the TV-movie Plebs: Soldiers of Rome for ITV and the Netflix smash-hit Sex Education, for which Sam wrote additional music cues alongside Oli Julian. In feature films, Sam has scored Rise Films’ Mayor exemplifying his sensitivity to picture in a spine-tingling vocal-only score. As part of Sam’s long-term collaboration with the composer Amelia Warner, Sam has co-scored Irish drama Kathleen Is Here directed by Eva Birthistle and Unidentified directed by Haifaa al-Mansour. Sam has orchestrated and conducted for large ensemble recordings including the scores for David Attenborough’s Frozen Planet II, PlayStation’s Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Sam has also provided additional orchestrations for Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ scores for Wind River, Kings and Mars. He has also written and conducted arrangements for artists such as The XX, Ellie Goulding, Lady Leshurr and Sophie Ellis Bextor, as well as conducting The Heritage Orchestra and Anna Calvi at the Burberry Fashion Show. As a commercial artist, Sam released his debut EP As Now the Light Retreats in 2021, and was asked to contribute to Deutsche Grammophon’s ‘Summer Tales’ compilation with a reworking of Pavane in 2022. Sam’s debut album ‘Roots’ is due for release in 2026 and he has recently produced Amelia Warner’s album ‘Halcyon’.

RB260033 THE BALLOONISTS (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Music Composed by NICK FOSTER & SAM THOMPSON
Release date: May 22, 2026