proto-sapien — composer and sound artist, Johannesburg
composer + producer
Original score and sound design for documentary, film, podcast and advertising. Music with an opinion.
A Johannesburg composer and sound artist, working in a city that has never once been quiet — and taking notes.
selected work
View all work →
Influence
Feature documentary · Dir. Diana Neille & Richard Poplak · Official Selection, Sundance 2020
Original music and title track, "Heist"
Highwaymen feat. Hyperlect
Original release · proto-sapien · 2023
Composition and production
Sonic Boundaries and Blur
Interactive sound installations · The Art House, Melville · 2025
Soundscape recording and installation design
Skoon Skincare · Campaign films · Original music · 2020–22
All six films →
services
score
Original music composed to picture for documentary, film and advertising, from first brief to final delivery. Saxophone, synthesis and recordings of real places share the same cue — films aren’t made in a vacuum, and their scores shouldn’t be either.
sound design
Bespoke sound built alongside the edit: atmospheres, textures and signature sounds that belong to your film, not to a sample library shared with ten thousand others.
music supervision
Finding the right existing music and clearing it properly, so that picture lock is a milestone rather than a legal event.
how it works
- 01spottingproto-sapien sits with the cut and the director, and agrees where music goes, where it doesn’t, and what each cue is there to do.
- 02sketchesShort sketches against picture, early — before anyone has had time to fall in love with the temp track.
- 03revisionsNotes are worked through as the edit moves. Scope and schedule are agreed up front, so revisions stay revisions.
- 04deliveryFinal cues, stems and cue sheets, delivered to spec for broadcast, streaming or cinema.
Remote, or in studio in Johannesburg. Quoted per project, not by the hour.
how we listen
shapes how we live.
project enquiries
proto-sapien responds to every enquiry within two working days — which, in this industry, counts as a radical act.