compositions for film

STOTTERAAR

documentary by Lante Kluiving

HKU AVM graduation 2025
/ NFF 2025

DE JONGENSKAMER

Score in collaberation with Lex Bijlsma

short-fiction by Dijk Booy

NFF Filmfonds Wildcard 2025

MAAR, MAMA

short-drama by Janneke Robers

HKU AVM graduation 2024

more coming soon...


HKU (composition/production) - project

composition - 2023

This animation follows a rabbit whose house catches fire. He turns to the forest authorities for help, but is instead passed from one official to another, trapped in a maze of bureaucracy and rigid rules.

I use shifts in between 3/4, 2/4, and 4/4 time-signature to reflect the imbalance and absurdity of the forest’s bureaucracy. In the shots where the rabbit runs up and down the stairs, the musical jumps grow bigger and more erratic, mirroring its rising panic and the feeling of being endlessly sent from one place to another.

Video

Through an intensive programme, 13-year-old Thijs hopes to overcome his stutter. But the journey proves more challenging than expected. Will he manage to find his own voice?

The inner world of someone who stutters is often difficult to perceive from the outside. Through music, I make that experience audible and tangible, drawing on conversations with director Lante Kluiving about the physical and mental experience of stuttering.

listen/watch here:

Video

During a school camping trip, Step (17) becomes fascinated by the masculine behavior of his roommates. As he observes them from a distance, his feminine energy sets something in motion. A few words are enough to turn their unquestioned world upside down.

Together with Lex Bijlsma, I created a deliberately constructed score that reflects masculinity as a construct. We use exaggerated and intentionally fake-sounding instruments, such as a synthetic cello, to give the music a crafted and slightly unnatural quality. A cynical tone runs throughout, reflecting the boys’ obsessive attempts to prove their masculinity.

listen/watch here:

Video

You know the typical Dutch birthday gathering: a party where awkwardness is hard to avoid. In Maar, mama, we witness three of these birthdays, where Nena constantly seeks validation from her mother, just as her mother does from hers. Nena’s partner, Jip, finds their family dynamic strange and hopes to make Nena see it too.

For Maar, Mama, a film about breaking family patterns and their impact on a relationship, I created a score that moves between bold, expansive moments and intimate, subtle passages, reflecting the emotional shifts between mother and daughter.

listen/watch here:

Video

production/mixing

Break A Leg - Mail For Sil

mixing

EP - 2026

Lang Nacht - OPPER'S

mixing

EP - 2026

Jackie - Mail For Sil

mixing

single - 2026

Lefdoen - OPPER'S

mixing

EP - 2024

Olivia - Mail For Sil

mixing

single - 2025

Wondering Today - Tales

production & mixing

single - 2025

Hi, I'm Mees Rijken: musician, composer and producer based in Utrecht. I studied HKU - music & technology (composition and production) and I graduated in 2025.

In my music, I experiment with sound, form, and texture. I play with the tension between abstraction and concreteness, between what can be grasped and what slips away.
My work is shaped by a certain tactile quality, somewhere between organic and artificial, familiar and strange.