James Pratley Watson is a Brooklyn based composer, performer and songwriter. His wide ranging output includes minimalist piano compositions, lo-fi indie, experimental film scores and orchestral works. This diverse body of work is united by Watson’s interest in minimalism, aleatoricism and the fusing of acoustic and electronic elements. He was recently awarded Best Original Score at the Berlin Indie Film Festival and last year was commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art for their The Music of Painting project.
Recent film score credits include feature comedy Valentina, directed by Tatti Ribeiro, starring Keyla Monterroso Mejia and Executive Produced by Jessica Alba, which premiered at Mill Valley Film Festival 2025. SHADOW DADDY (2026), a dark comedy short film by Andrew Balasia starring Blu Hunt and Kimball Farley, which had it’s US premiere at The Los Angeles Festival of Movies and The Feeling Remains (2024) a feature documentary by Sophie Rose, for which he won Best Original Score at both Berlin indie Film Festival and Swedish International Film Festival.
Commercial work includes music for clients such as J. Crew, Amazon, Revery, Gitman Bros and more.
You can hear James’ songs in Film and TV such as Shameless, the feature comedy Goodrich starring Michael Keaton and Mila Kunis, and the docuseries POLY on RokuTV.
James recently founded Bluehour Music House, a full-service music production house with a searchable catalog of ready-to-license music.
He is currently available for scoring projects - please inquire at jpratleyw@gmail.com