[1] He has written for a wide variety of purposes, with a broad range of styles, including instrumental and vocal concert music, film and television scores, pop arrangements and works for dance.

[7] He also played saxophone on the song "Time of Legends" for gothic rock band NOSFERATU, appearing on their 1993 single "Savage Kiss" and their 1994 album The Prophecy.

[3] Concert works of this period include Luminescence (1997) for the BBC Philharmonic; Falling (1998), written for cellist Phillip Sheppard; Incandescence (1998) for percussion and orchestra, commissioned by the Brunel Ensemble and later toured by Evelyn Glennie and the London Sinfonietta; String Quartet No.

[3] During this time, Talbot also completed a popular reworking of Portishead's 'All Mine' for The Divine Comedy's contribution to Tom Jones' covers album Reload (1999).

[7][failed verification] In 2002, Talbot wrote The Wishing Tree, a short a cappella madrigal setting a text by Kathleen Jamie, for The King's Singers, commissioned by the ensemble and The Proms as part of the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

Subsequent to this, Talbot was asked by Nigel Short, artistic director of chamber choir Tenebrae, to create a work that described the ancient Christian pilgrimage route across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela.

The resultant piece was the hour-long, a cappella journey Path of Miracles, setting multilingual texts collated by Robert Dickinson, which has steadily gained popularity with vocal ensembles and audiences.

[3] Sneaker Wave (2004) for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales was Talbot's second Proms commission, and also in that year, he was appointed Classic FM's inaugural Composer-in-Residence, a project which involved the composition of one short piece for small ensemble per month and resulted in the album Once Around the Sun (2005 Sony BMG).

The next year, Talbot was commissioned by the Philharmonia Orchestra to write an eighth movement to Holst's The Planets, as part of their interactive installation Universe of Sound at the Science Museum, London.

"[18] A suite from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, along with the score from the duo's first collaboration Fool's Paradise, was recorded in London in November 2012 by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Christopher Austin and released in January 2013.

Further work for the BBC has included the theme and (with Jeremy Holland-Smith and Richard Chester) score for the popular children's series Tracy Beaker Returns (2010–12).

As an arranger, Talbot has worked with numerous contemporary pop musicians, including Paul McCartney, Tom Jones, Air, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Neil Hannon and The Divine Comedy, Travis, and Ute Lemper, and with record producer Nigel Godrich.