Amin Bhatia

One of Canada's most imaginative composers/electronic keyboardist, Amin Bhatia has written and performed the scores for films including Iron Eagle II, Café Romeo, and the IMAX-film Gold Fever; and television shows, including Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Tales From the Crypt, and John Woo's Once a Thief. His compositions were featured during 20th anniversary celebrations at the Vancouver Planetarium in 1993. Trained at a time when synthesizers had to be played one note at a time, Bhatia has remained committed to analog equipment. Known for painstakingly layering thousands of electronic sounds to recreate the sound of an orchestra, Bhatia recorded the soundtrack for Gold Fever with banjo and guitar player James Tait, guitarist Mike Francis, percussionist Rick Lazar, and a 65-piece orchestra. Bhatia placed first (out of 500 entries) in an international synthesizer competition sponsored by Roland in 1981. This led to work with David Foster and Steve Porcaro, who suggested that he look into film soundtracks. Although Bhatia recorded a solo album, Interstellar Suite, for the Capitol-distributed Cinema label in 1977, the album was only available for a short time before the label folded.