The Treasury Dept.

Michael Hampton and Sohrab Habibion are Brooklyn-based composers and musicians with a stylistically varied body of work that has been used in film, television, video games and museum installations, as well as on stage. Last year they scored the award-winning documentary “W.S. Merwin: To Plant a Tree,” a one-hour program for PBS about former United States Poet Laureate, W.S. Merwin. And recently they’ve completed tracks for the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative and game development studio Toca Boca.

Michael began his career in the early ’80s Washington, D.C. hardcore punk scene, playing guitar and writing music for S.O.A. (with Henry Rollins) The Faith, Embrace and One Last Wish (with members of Fugazi), releasing several records on the seminal Dischord label. Later he was the principal songwriter and guitarist for Manifesto, whose sole LP was lauded by both the NME and Melody Maker. Since then Michael has scored Activision’s “Minority Report” video game, and 72 documentaries for the Discovery Channel, The History Channel and PBS. Michael’s music has been used in programs airing on Fox, TLC, The Sundance Channel, Discovery, HBO, Paramount, The WB, NBC, PBS, CBS, and MTV, among others, including his highly-praised score for the punk documentary Salad Days.

After cutting his teeth in high school punk bands, Sohrab started singing and playing guitar in Edsel, a D.C. indie rock outfit that released 4 critically-acclaimed albums and numerous singles. He moved to New York in 1997, acquired a handful of computer and studio skills, and focused on various audio projects between graphic design gigs. Sohrab has written, recorded, edited and mixed music, sound effects and dialog for cartoons, games, websites and other assorted interactive media. He’s collaborated with ESL Music recording artists Thunderball on a track for the popular BBC America show “Coupling,” has worked with the highly-regarded French chanson and rock singer Alain Bashung, Brazilian-American No Wave icon Arto Lindsay, the NYC-based post-punk band Girls Against Boys, SoHo design company Funny Garbage and even with Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry on a score for experimental New York choreographer, dancer and director Richard Move‘s collaboration with Mikhail Baryshnikov‘s White Oak Dance Project. After 3 LPs for Sub Pop Records with his group The Obits, Sohrab currently plays guitar and sings in SAVAK, who are finishing their 2nd album.