Murray Paterson

The main vehicle for Paterson's collaborations with Tex Perkins was the band Dark Horses, but he also contributed to albums by Tex, Don and Charlie.

Paterson and Perkins co-scored the soundtrack for the film Beautiful Kate, the directorial feature debut from Rachel Ward. With Perkins he received an ARIA nomination in 2009 for Best Original Soundtrack/Cast/Show Album for the soundtrack.^[1]

Headland is an Australian musical collective focussing on sound-scaping for film, often centred on surf culture and regional coastal landscapes. It is directed by Murray Paterson. Collaborative in nature, the collective both perform and record by responding intuitively to projected film. It began as a film retrieval project in which 8mm film shot by amateur moviemakers involved with the Northern NSW surf culture in the 1970s was collected and archived. The resulting score LP, sound/track (HL01), was released in Australia in 2013 followed by a 2014 release in the UK and Europe. Subsequent Headland releases are the LPs True Flowers from This Painted World (HL03, 2017) and What Rough Beast (AGIT54, 2019) which was released in the UK through Agitated Records. A vinyl EP, Cosy (HL02), was released in 2014.

Since 2018 Headland has worked closely with filmmaker Ishka Folkwell producing bespoke soundtracks for a range of short and feature-length films. The films are primarily poetic travel-pieces featuring surfer Torren Martyn. Releases include: A Sense of Space (HL04, 2018)  Nordurland (HL05, 2019) On Top of the World (HL06, 2020) Lost Track New Zealand (HL07, 2021) Bonney Upwelling (HL08, 2021) Lost Track Atlantic: Episode 1 (HL09, 2021) Lost Track Atlantic Episodes 2, 3 & 4 (HL011, 2021) Distant Shore (HL12, 2022) Slow Lane (HL13, 2023) Calypte (HL16, 2023) Reflection (HL17, 2024).

In 2021 Headland collaborated with Maanyung, a proud Aboriginal man with strong connections to Gumbaynggir and Yaegl nations. On Nguura Maanyung sings hauntingly in the language of his heritage.

The group has strong working relationship with The Surf Film Archive and has performed live scores to several presentations byJolyon Hoff of restored archival surf film. In 2022 and 2023 Headland produced full-length feature-film soundtracks for LightSoundArtFilm: Watandar  tells the story of Afghan refugee and photographer Muzafar Ali; You Should Have Been Here Yesterday is an homage to Australia’s early surf-culture using a collage of lovingly restored footage from The Surf Film Archive.

• MOJO Magazine gave True Flowers from This Painted World 4 Stars.^{[citation needed]}
• The Sydney Morning Herald made sound/track album of the week and awarded it 4 Stars.
• MOJO Magazine gave What Rough Beast 4 Stars.
• Surfing the Headland reached the top ten in various shops in England in 2014, including Manchester.^[2]

Paterson lectured in contemporary art theory at Southern Cross University, Lismore, New South Wales between 1999 and 2013.^{[citation needed]}

He received his Doctorate of Philosophy for the ficto-critical work Wonderstruck in 2002.^[4]