As Theatre Composer
Press Reviews
Trojan Women (Cambridge Arts)
‘The fine music, composed by Keith Clouston, draws on Albanian folk-songs, mixed with looped drones and voices, and is particularly suitable.’
Times Literary Supplement, Nov 1998
Coriolanus (Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) & Old Vic)
‘Keith Clouston’s percussive Japanese score can create an instant atmosphere of chaos or austere serenity.’
Evening Standard, Nov 2002
'Keith Clouston’s score, with its Noh - theatre mix of plaintive flutes and throbbing drums, transcends pastiche to achieve its own distinctive style.’
Guardian, Nov 2002
‘Keith Clouston’s music evokes the fiercely hierarchical world of samurai-era Japan without getting mired in literalism.’
Daily Telegraph, June 2003
‘Top marks too for Keith Clouston's percussive music - here is a score that genuinely enhances the production.’
www.whatsonstage.com, June 2003
‘Keith Clouston’s music of eerie murmurings of flutes and harsh, percussive injunctions imports an exhilarating, intriguing air to old Rome.’
Evening Standard June 2003
Comedy of Errors (Bristol Old Vic)
‘Keith Clouston’s music is like Erik Satie on speed.’
Sunday Times, Oct 2003
‘Keith Clouston’s eerie piano music underscoring moments of reverie and tinkling away furiously during stretches of out-and-out-farce.’
Daily Telegraph, Nov 2003
Paradise Lost (Bristol Old Vic)
‘The composer Keith Clouston has ‘stretched’ a Lutheran hymn tune to include influences by Arvo Pärt and Philip Glass in what is now ‘a more dispassionate electronic score’.’
Times, April 2004
Julius Caesar (RSC & Lyric Hammersmith)
‘The whole piece is underscored with weird abstract sound.’
UK Theatre Web, Dec 2004
Tamburlaine (Bristol Old Vic & Barbican)
‘Keith Clouston’s thrilling score swirls together Arabic and contemporary sounds so that we feel the play’s connection with our war-torn world.’
Times, Nov 2005
The Magic Carpet (Lyric Hammersmith)
‘Keith Clouston’s music fits the action of this slick and classy show perfectly: there are good musical jokes, too.’
Stage, Dec 2005
The Eleventh Capital (Royal Court)
‘superbly edgy minimalist music’
British Theatre Guide Online, Feb 2007
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Lyric Hammersmith)
‘The show is all the more powerful for its simplicity, strengthened by the sound design of composer Keith Clouston.'
www.whatsonstage.com, Feb 2008
‘gorgeous African-style music from composer Keith Clouston grooving in the air’
www.roguesandvagabonds.co.uk, Feb 2008
The Winter’s Tale (RSC & Roundhouse)
‘Keith Clouston’s superb, almost subliminal score features an array of ticks and chimes which pick up the play’s theme of the fateful passage of time.’
www.whatsonstage.com, April 2009
‘Dazzlingly handling the change in mood, augmented by Keith Clouston’s multi-layered score, Greg Hicks performance is nothing short of virtuoso.’
www.fourthwallmagazine.com, December 2010
‘Keith Clouston's original and evocative music enriches the atmosphere’
www.curtainup.com, December 2010
King Lear (RSC)
‘The new theatre’s acoustics are tested with this production as Lear’s cries echo around the auditorium and Keith Clouston’s discordant music almost bounces off the walls.’
Birmingham Post, March 18 2011
The Winter’s Tale (RSC, Lincoln Centre Festival, New York)
‘Composer Keith Clouston's terrific score mixes strong dramatic underscoring with tuneful, folk-flavored English songs.’
www.backstage.com July 2011
‘Leontes’s seething monologues are accompanied by eerie, high-pitched strains in Keith Clouston’s score that cannily evoke the warped perspective of a discomposed mind.’
New York Times 25 July 2011
‘Keith Clouston’s eerie Cage-like score contributes to the sense of tension and unease in Leontes’ palace.’
WNYC Radio, July 2011
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC)
‘A delightful psych-folk score by Keith Clouston.’
Daily Telegraph, August 2011
‘To a sly pastiche of Ravel’s Bolero, Titania leads off to bed her tethered assinine lover.’
Spectator, August 2011
Mary Shelley (West Yorkshire Playhouse)
‘Keith Clouston's watery soundscape… highly evocative throughout’
Morning Star, April 2012
All’s Well That Ends Well (RSC)
‘The production's composer, Keith Clouston, has written a revealing programme note about the impulse behind his music, creating sound worlds reflecting the radical difference between Helena and the bellicose Bertram: the sensuality of Arab music on lute, flute and electronic soundscaping, and the rap and rock on a compilation CD called Body of War: Songs That Inspired an Iraq War Veteran.’
What’s On Stage, July 2013
‘Keith Clouston’s music finds aural motifs for the couple which slowly wind their way together as the production progresses.’
Exeunt Magazine, July 2013
‘There are some fine group set pieces. The play opens with a rock disco, the stuff of adolescence. In the middle the soldiers are off to war in another rock set piece... conceptually brilliant.’
Moss Cottage.org, August 2013
‘Composer Keith Clouston employs a range of instruments from electric guitars to Arabian ouds, which add to the eclectic and effective mixture.’
stagereviews.co.uk, July 2013
Press Reviews
Trojan Women (Cambridge Arts)
‘The fine music, composed by Keith Clouston, draws on Albanian folk-songs, mixed with looped drones and voices, and is particularly suitable.’
Times Literary Supplement, Nov 1998
Coriolanus (Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) & Old Vic)
‘Keith Clouston’s percussive Japanese score can create an instant atmosphere of chaos or austere serenity.’
Evening Standard, Nov 2002
'Keith Clouston’s score, with its Noh - theatre mix of plaintive flutes and throbbing drums, transcends pastiche to achieve its own distinctive style.’
Guardian, Nov 2002
‘Keith Clouston’s music evokes the fiercely hierarchical world of samurai-era Japan without getting mired in literalism.’
Daily Telegraph, June 2003
‘Top marks too for Keith Clouston's percussive music - here is a score that genuinely enhances the production.’
www.whatsonstage.com, June 2003
‘Keith Clouston’s music of eerie murmurings of flutes and harsh, percussive injunctions imports an exhilarating, intriguing air to old Rome.’
Evening Standard June 2003
Comedy of Errors (Bristol Old Vic)
‘Keith Clouston’s music is like Erik Satie on speed.’
Sunday Times, Oct 2003
‘Keith Clouston’s eerie piano music underscoring moments of reverie and tinkling away furiously during stretches of out-and-out-farce.’
Daily Telegraph, Nov 2003
Paradise Lost (Bristol Old Vic)
‘The composer Keith Clouston has ‘stretched’ a Lutheran hymn tune to include influences by Arvo Pärt and Philip Glass in what is now ‘a more dispassionate electronic score’.’
Times, April 2004
Julius Caesar (RSC & Lyric Hammersmith)
‘The whole piece is underscored with weird abstract sound.’
UK Theatre Web, Dec 2004
Tamburlaine (Bristol Old Vic & Barbican)
‘Keith Clouston’s thrilling score swirls together Arabic and contemporary sounds so that we feel the play’s connection with our war-torn world.’
Times, Nov 2005
The Magic Carpet (Lyric Hammersmith)
‘Keith Clouston’s music fits the action of this slick and classy show perfectly: there are good musical jokes, too.’
Stage, Dec 2005
The Eleventh Capital (Royal Court)
‘superbly edgy minimalist music’
British Theatre Guide Online, Feb 2007
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Lyric Hammersmith)
‘The show is all the more powerful for its simplicity, strengthened by the sound design of composer Keith Clouston.'
www.whatsonstage.com, Feb 2008
‘gorgeous African-style music from composer Keith Clouston grooving in the air’
www.roguesandvagabonds.co.uk, Feb 2008
The Winter’s Tale (RSC & Roundhouse)
‘Keith Clouston’s superb, almost subliminal score features an array of ticks and chimes which pick up the play’s theme of the fateful passage of time.’
www.whatsonstage.com, April 2009
‘Dazzlingly handling the change in mood, augmented by Keith Clouston’s multi-layered score, Greg Hicks performance is nothing short of virtuoso.’
www.fourthwallmagazine.com, December 2010
‘Keith Clouston's original and evocative music enriches the atmosphere’
www.curtainup.com, December 2010
King Lear (RSC)
‘The new theatre’s acoustics are tested with this production as Lear’s cries echo around the auditorium and Keith Clouston’s discordant music almost bounces off the walls.’
Birmingham Post, March 18 2011
The Winter’s Tale (RSC, Lincoln Centre Festival, New York)
‘Composer Keith Clouston's terrific score mixes strong dramatic underscoring with tuneful, folk-flavored English songs.’
www.backstage.com July 2011
‘Leontes’s seething monologues are accompanied by eerie, high-pitched strains in Keith Clouston’s score that cannily evoke the warped perspective of a discomposed mind.’
New York Times 25 July 2011
‘Keith Clouston’s eerie Cage-like score contributes to the sense of tension and unease in Leontes’ palace.’
WNYC Radio, July 2011
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC)
‘A delightful psych-folk score by Keith Clouston.’
Daily Telegraph, August 2011
‘To a sly pastiche of Ravel’s Bolero, Titania leads off to bed her tethered assinine lover.’
Spectator, August 2011
Mary Shelley (West Yorkshire Playhouse)
‘Keith Clouston's watery soundscape… highly evocative throughout’
Morning Star, April 2012
All’s Well That Ends Well (RSC)
‘The production's composer, Keith Clouston, has written a revealing programme note about the impulse behind his music, creating sound worlds reflecting the radical difference between Helena and the bellicose Bertram: the sensuality of Arab music on lute, flute and electronic soundscaping, and the rap and rock on a compilation CD called Body of War: Songs That Inspired an Iraq War Veteran.’
What’s On Stage, July 2013
‘Keith Clouston’s music finds aural motifs for the couple which slowly wind their way together as the production progresses.’
Exeunt Magazine, July 2013
‘There are some fine group set pieces. The play opens with a rock disco, the stuff of adolescence. In the middle the soldiers are off to war in another rock set piece... conceptually brilliant.’
Moss Cottage.org, August 2013
‘Composer Keith Clouston employs a range of instruments from electric guitars to Arabian ouds, which add to the eclectic and effective mixture.’
stagereviews.co.uk, July 2013