Richard Jacques

Richard Adrian Jacques (; born 1973 ) is an English composer of film, television and video game music. He is best known for his scores for games such as Sonic R, Headhunter, Jet Set Radio Future, Mass Effect, James Bond 007: Blood Stone, LittleBigPlanet 2, and Guardians of the Galaxy.

Early life Jacques was interested in composing music from an early age. He was awarded a scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Music in London, studying trombone and piano, and showed a keen interest in composition in multiple styles including orchestral, jazz and popular music genres. He then attended Wells Cathedral School aged 16 as a Specialist Musician, where he also took up Percussion. In 1994 Jacques graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Colchester Institute / University of Essex. He was immediately hired as an in-house composer at Sega Europe.

Career At Sega Europe, Jacques began by composing soundtracks for a number of Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, and Xbox games such as Daytona CCE, Sonic R, Sonic 3D Blast, Jet Set Radio, Metropolis Street Racer and Jet Set Radio Future.

Jacques's most accomplished work at Sega, 2001's Headhunter, was the first video game soundtrack to be recorded with A-list musicians at Abbey Road Studios' Studio One. The soundtrack was well received, and won multiple awards including Game Audio Network Guild 'Recognition Award', and was performed at the first Symphonic Game Music Concert at The Gewandhaus in Leipzig and Video Games Live events including the inaugural concert at the Hollywood Bowl in 2005. and Ivor Novello nominated original music for James Bond 007: Blood Stone. The score received top honours for "Best Original Composition" from the Music and Sound Awards 2012. After this, Jacques composed the music for the Alice in Wonderland game, for Disney in 2010, and LittleBigPlanet 2 for Sony in 2011.

Soon after, Richard opened a new studio in central London called AUDISSI, where he writes original music for new advertising, television, video games, and other visual media projects. This included music for TV game-shows such as Don't Scare the Hare, Prize Island, Fifteen to One, Catchphrase, The Getaway Car, Go for It, Don't Ask Me Ask Britain and Y Siambr.

In 2018, Jacques was presented with the Lifetime Achievement award from the Game Audio Network Guild.

In 2022, his score to Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy won him the Best Original Video Game Score Ivor Novello Award.

Works Video games

Film and TV Year Title Notes 2011 Don't Scare the Hare TV series 2013 Wright vs. Wrong Short Beat the Pack TV series Prize Island 2013 Fifteen to One Catchphrase 2014 Quest: A Tall Tale Film 2015 If You Give a Mouse a Cookie TV series 2016 The Getaway Car Go for It 2017 Don't Ask Me Ask Britain 2019 Y Siambr