Jesper Kyd
Composer
Jesper Kyd Productions

Home: Manhattan, New York

Email: kyd@jesperkyd.com

Web: http://www.jesperkyd.com

Next-Gen Title (Ubisoft)
Unreal Tournament 2007 (Epic)
The Chronicles of Spellborn MMORPG (Spellborn International)

Awards:

• Best Original Music, 2005 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award Winner (Hitman: Contracts)
• Best Cinematic / Cut-Scene Audio, 2005 Game Audio Network Guild Award Winner
  (Hitman: Contracts)
• Best Use of Sound, Billboard 2004 Digital Entertainment Awards Finalist
  (Freedom Fighters)
• Best Original Music, GameSpot Award Winner
  (Freedom Fighters)
• Best Music, Game Reactor Magazine Award Winner
  (Freedom Fighters)
• Editor’s Choice Gold Award, PSE2 Magazine Award Winner
  (Freedom Fighters Original Soundtrack Album)
• Best Original Vocal Song – Choral, 2003 G.A.N.G. Awards Finalist
  (Freedom Fighters “Main Title”)
• Best Original Vocal Song – Choral, 2003 G.A.N.G. Awards Finalist
  (Freedom Fighters “March of the Empire”)
• Best Soundtrack, Games Agent Magazine Award Winner
  (Hitman 2: Silent Assassin)
• Editor’s Choice Gold Award, PSE2 Magazine Award Winner
  (Hitman 2: Silent Assassin Soundtrack Album)
• Music of the Year, 2002 G.A.N.G. Awards Finalist
  (Hitman 2: Silent Assassin)
• Best Original Vocal Song – Choral, 2002 G.A.N.G. Awards Finalist
  (Hitman 2: Silent Assassin “Main Title”)
• Best Original Soundtrack, 2002 G.A.N.G. Awards Finalist
  (Hitman 2: Silent Assassin)
• Audio of the Year, 2002 G.A.N.G. Awards Finalist
  (Hitman 2: Silent Assassin)

Video Games:

Hitman: Blood Money,Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (cinematics and additional music), Robotech: Invasion, Hitman: Contracts, Freedom Fighters, Brute Force, Minority Report, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, MDK2, Hitman: Codename 47

Film:

Stranger, Night All Day, Death of a Saleswoman, Virus, Impulse, Day Pass, Cycle, Lion Tamer,

Discography

Hitman: Blood Money Original Soundtrack, Hitman: Codename 47 / Hitman 2: Silent Assassin Original Soundtrack, Robotech: Invasion Original Soundtrack, Hitman: Contracts Original Soundtrack, Freedom Fighters Original Soundtrack, Brute Force Original Soundtrack, The Nations Original Soundtrack

Jesper Kyd composes award-winning electronic and symphonic soundtracks for video games and movies. His powerful blend of ambient, electronic and classical orchestrations enhances the emotional and dramatic impact of each production and his ability to constantly raise the bar for cinematic, immersive music for the visual medium is a trademark of his scoring career.

His distinctive mix of memorable themes, urban soundscapes and ethnic instrumentation for the first Hitman video game, Hitman: Codename 47 is revered as a classic amongst fans; “The theme song to the original Hitman is arguably one of the best pieces of video game theme music so far this decade,” MP3.com recently declared. Likewise, the Hitman 2: Silent Assassin score, recorded with 110 musicians of the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and Choir, is regarded by many critics as some of the best music ever recorded for the genre; “The music of most big budget action movies won't move you like the music of Hitman 2,” said IGN.

Kyd's heroic and densely atmospheric music for the epic action/adventure Freedom Fighters further established him as one of the leading, innovative A-list composers in interactive entertainment. Described by Film Score Monthly Magazine as “Vangelis on steroids” his score for Freedom Fighters won GameSpot's coveted “Best Original Music Award” and was nominated for “Best Use of Soundtrack” at the Billboard Digital Entertainment Awards , as well as two nominations for “Best Original Vocal Song – Choral” (‘Main Title' and ‘March of the Empire') at the Game Audio Network Guild Awards.

Since I was a kid I loved playing games. I got my first computer when I was 13 and was immediately fascinated with the amazing music in many C64 games.  I started experimenting with creating computer music and soon I was making music on my next computer, the Amiga.

I got into this industry because of my love for video games and the incredible innovative music being written for games back in the 1980s on the C64 and Amiga. When I became a professional composer of game music, I decided I wanted to add the same kind of excitement and experimentation into my game scores as the early C64 pioneering composers.

Tools I Can't Live Without:

Cubase SX, V-Stack, Giga Studio 3, Sound Forge7, Pro Tools, Kontakt2, Reaktor 5, Vision Daw computers, Carillion computers, Wave Master Gaming Computer, G5, Bittree Patchbay, O2R, my DJ mixer, hardware synths, power conditioners, drum machines, computers, plugins, soft synths.

The Grand Theft Auto series of games sound awesome and the music games such as Guitar Hero are great musical experiences. We still have some work to do before game scores can be separated from film scores as a credible art form in their own right. For this change to happen, we need to go our own way and start believing in fresh and original sounding game music.

When adding live recordings to my music, I am inspired by the way Hollywood places such quality production value with the whole recording process.

I think a lot of fantastic music has been written for films, both Hollywood

and independent releases. I am inspired by everything from electronica to film scores: Joe Hisaishi, Alberto Iglesias, Jerry Goldsmith, Ennio Morricone, Lalo Schifrin, John Barry, Royksopp, Cristian Vogel, Vangelis, Brian Eno, SUBA and many more.