This latest appointment completes the team of senior creatives that will lead the direction of the London 2012 Ceremonies and sees the experimental two-piece once again collaborating with Danny Boyle (pictured far right), artistic director of the Opening Ceremony, following a long and diverse partnership through film and music.

Underworld duo Rick Smith and Karl Hyde first worked alongside the Oscar winning British filmmaker when their track Born Slippy featured in Boyle's 1996 film Trainspotting.

Over the following 15 years the three developed a close relationship, with Smith and Hyde supplying specially created music for A Life Less Ordinary, The Beach and co-scoring the 2007 sci-fi film Sunshine.

In 2010 they came together again to work on the critically acclaimed National Theatre production of Frankenstein.

"Appointing Underworld to direct the music in the Olympic Opening Ceremony is the final piece of the jigsaw for the team of leading British creatives who will deliver the ceremonies," Boyle said.

"What's interesting about working with them is how much broader their taste is than you might imagine.

"With Frankenstein we really saw how far we could take a broader approach than we'd used together on the films."

Hyde added: "We want to leave people with a musical memory of the show rather than a purely visual one.

"It's a great honour to be asked to do this and one we're taking very seriously – it's certainly not something we'll get the chance to do again."

London 2012 has put in place an illustrious team of eminent British talent to create a series of Olympic and Paralympic Ceremonies to remember.

In May 2010 Stephen Daldry, Mark Fisher, Hamish Hamilton, and Catherine Ugwu, were appointed as executive producers across all four Ceremonies, and Boyle, was appointed as artistic director for the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony.

In February 2011 Take That's creative director Kim Gavin was appointed artistic director for the Closing Ceremonies of both the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and he was joined by multi-award-winning stage and costume designer Es Devlin, as well as Bond film composer and record producer David Arnold as part of the Closing Ceremonies team.

In June 2011 Jenny Sealey and Bradley Hemmings were appointed as artistic directors of the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

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