David Holmes launches new label Dream Drama, debuting with Ivor Novello-Winning Trespasses

Music

Written by Wil

David Holmes has a new home for his scores, compilations and whatever else takes his fancy. Dream Drama is the name, and it opens for business today with Ivor Novello winning Trespasses, his soundtrack collaboration with Brian Irvine.

It’s a third Ivor Novello apiece for Holmes and Irvine, and on this evidence, it’s easy to see why. The judges pointed to the score’s simplicity and space, its shimmering restraint, the way the guitars never overplay their hand — a soundtrack that earns its place in a show rather than sitting on top of it. Holmes and Irvine have described the record as instinctive, personal, pulled straight from their own Belfast — which tracks, given the emotional weight the series carries.

Sonically, it moves through 1970s-tinged textures, acoustic instrumentation, and electronic sound design, with RÓIS threading a vocal line throughout that keeps it human. There’s suffocating tension in places, fragile intimacy in others, and plenty of space left unfilled – Holmes and Irvine leaning into ambiguity rather than reaching for the easy emotional beat.

<a href="https://david-holmes.bandcamp.com/album/trespasses-original-score-2">Trespasses (Original Score) by David Holmes, Brian Irvine</a>

You know Holmes’ résumé by now — Soderbergh’s regular composer, the man behind UNLOVED and the BAFTA-winning Killing Eve score, more recently on production duties for Primal Scream’s Come Ahead and the new Dexys record, plus a back catalogue of remixes for the likes of Sinéad O’Connor, Orbital, Manic Street Preachers and Kneecap. He’s also still holding down God’s Waiting Room on NTS every month, alongside the club nights and DJ sets that tend to turn up in undisclosed locations.

Dream Drama feels like the natural next step — a label built around the score work and the wider creative ideas that don’t fit neatly anywhere else.