Natalie Holt is a British composer who scored the Star Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi television miniseries. An avid violinist and fan of Star Wars maestro John Williams' works, Holt took the opportunity of scoring Kenobi to pay homage to Williams' epic scores and further explore orchestral music while also experimenting with new sounds, introducing her personal touches to the Star Wars franchise.
A British composer for films and television series, Natalie Holt scored the Star Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi television miniseries. For Kenobi, she met with its director, Deborah Chow, in London, spending two days watching a rough cut of the series to discuss its characters and events. Holt was also excited to collaborate, albeit indirectly, with Star Wars maestro John Williams, who composed the main title suite and the theme for the series' protagonist, the Jedi-in-exile Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi. Holt herself then set out to compose the full score, initially attempting to write a theme for Kenobi as well based on Chow's description of the character being lost and alone in the deserts. The composer thus began writing the score with the meager and fragmented sense of the character's presence in mind, developing the music as his journey progresses. In learning the ropes of what music best suits the series, Holt was grateful for the guidance of Chow and Lucasfilm's president, Kathleen Kennedy, as she found her own way into contributing to Star Wars while working on the Kenobi episodes, eventually getting into the flow of the project at about episode four.
The Kenobi score includes themes for the stormtroopers, individual characters, and the new planets that the series explores. In choosing distinctive sounds for each planet, Holt considered each world's character and incorporated different styles of music, such as Thai, Hong Kong, and Latin sounds, attempting to transform them to convey a sense of otherworldliness. While Holt brought in new elements to the Star Wars soundscape, she describes her score for Kenobi to be more rooted in the Star Wars tradition than Ludwig Göransson's score for the The Mandalorian television series. As a violinist, the composer wrote several emotional violin themes for Kenobi, and Holt took the opportunity to invite soloist to record some of the score.
The score of Kenobi was recorded at the in Los Angeles, and includes Holt's own performance, playing the viola and the violin as well as singing. In addition to orchestrator , Holt also worked alongside percussionist , who introduced several percussion instruments. The two experimented with the clashing and rhythmic texture of the percussion, and Holt further made use of synth sounds as well as a collection of 250 horns and flutes belonging to Swedish folk flutist , who played his nyckelharpas. In particular, Holt employed a hunting horn, recording then reducing its pitch for an effect that she considers "haunting." The composer recorded her score with Göransson's engineer, , mixing the music at the studio of Göransson, whom Holt also had the pleasure of meeting.