Martin Villiger has scored more documentary films than any other Swiss composer of his generation. He has written music for more than 130 films, 50 advertising campaigns and over 400 series episodes: and an archive of more than 2,000 of his pieces lives in the internal library of Swiss television.
He started at the piano at seven, bought his first synthesizer at sixteen and immediately used it to write music for films. After fourteen years of classical study he attended the Academy of Contemporary Music in Zurich and graduated with an SMPV-accredited degree in 2000: the same year he founded Visual Music.
He has a habit of being first. With the DVD The Voyage (2004) he was one of the first composers in Switzerland to score consistently in 5.1 surround. Today he works in Dolby Atmos and explores where human creativity meets AI, hosting panels at Soundtrack Zurich, Soundtrack Cologne, AI MusicCon and the Zurich University of the Arts, where he also mentors composition students.
Beyond film, Martin develops sonic identities for companies and also broadcast series. Some of his advertising campaigns feature names like Apple, Samsung, Swisscom, Salt, Snickers and Rega, alongside film and series work for Netflix and SRF. On stage, he founded the Culture Clash concerts in 2022 and has performed his Emotional Composing format since 2006 — composing live in the moment, shaped by the audience in real time. In 2009 he composed, arranged and played the entire Salto Natale circus programme live for 68 nights. BLICK called him "the Swiss Hans Zimmer."