Jesper Kyd Jakobson (; born 3 February 1972) is a Danish composer and

sound designer In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...

who has worked on various video game, television, and film projects. He has composed soundtracks for the ''

Hitman Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may b ...

'' series, ''

Assassin's Creed ''Assassin's Creed'' is an open-world, action-adventure, and stealth game franchise published by Ubisoft and developed mainly by its studio Ubisoft Montreal using the game engine Anvil and its more advanced derivatives. Created by Patrice D ...

'' series, '' Borderlands'' series, ''

Darksiders II ''Darksiders II'' is an action role-playing hack and slash action-adventure video game developed by Vigil Games and published by THQ. It is the sequel to '' Darksiders'' and was released in August 2012 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xb ...

'' and ''

State of Decay ''State of Decay'' is a series of third-person survival horror video games. The series was created by Undead Labs and published by Xbox Game Studios. To date, there are two installments in the franchise, and an upcoming third game. Common game ...

'', among many others. His scores use orchestra, choir, acoustic manipulations and electronic soundscapes.

Biography

Early years

Kyd started playing the piano at an early age. Later, he took several years of training in classical guitar, note reading, choir singing and classical composition for piano. However, he is mostly self-taught. Kyd started using computers for composing on a

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness W ...

at age 14, and later an

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore International, Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and sign ...

. He and Mikael Balle became members of the demogroup Silents DK, and later started collaborating with a group of

coders A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/create ...

known as Crionics. They eventually made the

demoscene The demoscene is an international computer art subculture focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce audiovisual presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off programming, visual ...

production ''Hardwired''. Kyd also created and scored the first wild demo, ''Global Trash 2'', together with Mikael Balle. Kyd then left the demoscene and started to work as a game musician. He and others created the computer game developer

Zyrinx Zyrinx was a video game developer founded in 1992 in Copenhagen, Denmark. It consisted exclusively of people who had been active in the Amiga demo scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including composer Jesper Kyd. The first game developed by ...

and a game called ''

Sub-Terrania ''Sub-Terrania'' is a 1994 multidirectional shooter developed by Danish studio Zyrinx and published by Sega for the Mega Drive/Genesis. The game takes place in the future, where a deep-space mining colony has been invaded by an unknown alien race. ...

'' for the

Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...

. The team then relocated to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. Kyd composed music for two additional Zyrinx titles, '' Red Zone'' and '' Scorcher'' and the music for two externally developed games, '' Amok'' and ''

The Adventures of Batman and Robin ''Batman: The Animated Series'' (often shortened as ''Batman TAS'' or ''BTAS'') is an American superhero animated television series based on the DC Comics superhero Batman. Developed by Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski, and produced by Warner Bro ...

'' for the

. Zyrinx dissolved when their game publisher Scavenger went bankrupt.

Freelance

Many former Zyrinx members returned to Denmark to start

IO Interactive IO Interactive A/S (IOI) is a Danish video game developer based in Copenhagen, best known for creating and developing the ''Hitman'' and '' Kane and Lynch'' franchises. IO Interactive's most recent game is '' Hitman 3'', which was released in J ...

, but Kyd moved to New York City and set up his own sound studio in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

called "Nano studios". He then worked as a freelance video game musician. The soundtrack to ''Hitman:'' ''Codename 47'' was based on urban soundscapes and ethnic instrumentation. He then recorded the soundtrack of '' Hitman 2: Silent Assassin'' with 110 musicians of the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and Hungarian Radio

Choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

. He recorded the score for the action/adventure '' Freedom Fighters'' with the Hungarian Radio choir. It was described by ''

Film Score Monthly ''Film Score Monthly'' is an online magazine (and former print magazine) founded by editor-in-chief and executive producer Lukas Kendall in June 1990 in music, 1990 as ''The Soundtrack Correspondence List''. It is dedicated to the art of Film sco ...

Magazine'' as "

Vangelis Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou ( el, Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; el, Βαγγέλης, links=no ), was a Greek composer and arranger of ...

on steroids". He used modern

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to ...

and symphonic and choral music in '' Hitman: Contracts''. Kyd followed up with '' Hitman: Blood Money'', also performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and Hungarian Radio Choir. Kyd then provided a cinematic middle eastern-based score for Ubisoft's ''

''. He then wrote music for several games in the Assassin's Creed and Borderlands franchise. Kyd also wrote the soundtrack for the action/adventure ''

'', notable for being his first entirely non-digital score. Kyd lives in

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, who ...

and is represented by The Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency, Inc. Jesper Kyd's influences include composers such as

Ottorino Respighi Ottorino Respighi ( , , ; 9 July 187918 April 1936) was an Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and musicologist and one of the leading Italian composers of the early 20th century. His compositions range over operas, ballets, orchestral su ...

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...

Jean-Michel Jarre Jean-Michel André Jarre (; born 24 August 1948) is a French composer, performer and record producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and new-age genres, and is known for organising outdoor spectacles featuring his music, accompani ...

Mike Oldfield Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and document ...

John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (15 November 2022)Classic Connection review '' WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...

Jerry Goldsmith Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929July 21, 2004) was an American composer and conductor known for his work in film and television scoring. He composed scores for five films in the ''Star Trek'' franchise and three in the ''Rambo'' franc ...

, and bands such as

Röyksopp Röyksopp (), a Norwegian electronic music duo from Tromsø formed in 1998. The duo consists of Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland. Berge and Brundtland were introduced to each other through a mutual friend in Tromsø, Norway. They enjoy ...

, the Knife,

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philosophical lyrics an ...

, and

Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underwo ...

Works

Video games

Films

Short films

TV series

Awards

Nominations

References

External links

*
Artist profile
at

OverClocked ReMix OverClocked ReMix, also known as OC ReMix and OCR, is a non-commercial organization dedicated to preserving and paying tribute to video game music through arranging and re-interpreting the songs, both with new technology and software and by var ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kyd, Jesper 1972 births Ambient musicians BAFTA winners (people) Danish electronic musicians Danish film score composers Demosceners Electronica musicians Intelligent dance musicians Living people Male film score composers Male television composers People from Hørsholm Municipality Television composers Tracker musicians Video game composers La-La Land Records artists