Jesper Kyd

Jesper Kyd 2013

Jesper Kyd (* 3. February 1972 in Odense , Fyn, Denmark) is a composer, the most for his compositions to video games (such as the. Hitman - or Assassin's Creed series) has become known. His comparatively innovative music is characterized by changes in tempo , atmospheric surprises and dynamics, occasionally traditional / ethnic instruments are combined with choirs.

Early years

Jesper Kyd took five years of classical guitar lessons as a child, sang in a choir for one year and took piano lessons for five years, during which he mainly dealt with reading sheet music. Kyd found it much more interesting to compose music at the time than to act on the works of others. At the age of 14 he received a Commodore 128 for Christmas with which he composed his own music. He joined the demo scene and started creating music for various demo groups on the Commodore 128. A few years later he got an Amiga that had advanced music capabilities such as music sampler . Together with his best friend and work colleague Mikael Balle, he founded the group Silents DK and eventually began working with a group of programmers known as Crionics . They released the Amiga demo Hardwired .

Beginning

Jesper Kyd left the demo scene to work as a professional game musician. He and his friends, who worked together on the Hardwired demo, formed the Zyrinx computer game development team and began working together to develop the game Subterrania for the Sega Mega Drive console . Because the game became a commercial success, Jesper Kyd and the rest of the team moved to Boston, USA. Jesper Kyd composed the music for three other titles before the publisher Scavenger went bankrupt and the team around Zyrinx dissolved. After Zyrinx closed , the team went back to Denmark without Jesper Kyd to set up the development studio IO Interactive . Kyd moved to New York to start the Nano Studios music studio in Manhattan . Some of the main influences for his compositional style are classical composers such as Ottorino Respighi and Igor Stravinsky . Bands like Röyksopp and The Knife also played a big role in developing his own melodies.

Commercial breakthrough

Jesper Kyd's commercial breakthrough came with the release of Hitman: Codename 47 . The soundtrack was based, among other things, on urban noises. In reviewing the game, an editor of PCZONE magazine wrote that Hitman had some of the best songs he'd heard that year ("some of the best tunes I've heard all year"). The next success was the soundtrack for Hitman 2: Silent Assassin , which was recorded with 110 musicians from the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and its choir. Aaron Boulding wrote on the IGN Entertainment website that the music of most expensive action films doesn't move the viewer as much as the music of Hitman 2 ("The music of most big budget action movies won't move you like the music of Hitman 2. "). His following soundtrack was created for the third-person shooter Freedom Fighters . His fusion of modern electronic music, symphonic sounds and the choir in Hitman: Contracts has received high international acclaim and dubbed one of the best atmospheric soundtracks. This soundtrack won an award for best original music at the 2005 BAFTA Games Awards. Kyd's other work includes the anime video game soundtrack for Robotech: Invasion , Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and the soundtrack for Hitman: Blood Money , which was recorded by orchestras and a choir of 150 musicians from the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and Hungarian Radio Choir. Other works included the MMORPG Die Chroniken von Spellborn and the first-person shooter Unreal Tournament 3 . Jesper Kyd has lived in Los Angeles since 2007.

Video games (selection)

Movies

Tumbbad
The Passion of the Virgin of Orléans (New Score, 2007)
Cycle
Day Pass
Death of a Salewoman
Elevators
Gameplanet Spots
Going with Neill
Impulses
Night all day
Organizm
Paper plane man
Play
PURE
Stranger
The Lion Tamer

Awards and nominations

Action Vault 2002 Outstanding Achievement In Music
BAFTA 2005 Best Original Music Award (British Academy Award)
Billboard Awards Finalist 2004 Best Music
Bolt Games Bolt Games Music Award
GANG 2003 Hitman 2
GANG 2004 Freedom Fighters
GANG 2005 Hitman Contracts
Game Reactor 2003 Best Original Soundtrack
Games Agent 2002 Best Original Soundtrack Award
Gamespot 2002 Best Original Soundtrack Of The Year Nomination
Gamespot 2003 Best Soundtrack of the Year Award
IGN 2002 Best Sound Nomination
IGN 2004 Best Soundtrack Finalist
PSE2 Editor's Choice GOLD - Freedom Fighters
PSE2 Editor's Choice GOLD - Hitman 2
PSE2 Editor's Choice GOLD - Hitman Contracts
X-Sages 2002 Soundtrack Of The Year Nomination

Web links

Jesper Kyd in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Official website of Jesper Kyd. Retrieved October 27, 2009 .
No kydding. Retrieved October 27, 2009 (Jesper Kyd's official blog).
Profile at OverClocked ReMix. Retrieved October 27, 2009 .
Jesper Kyd at Amiga Music Preservation. Retrieved October 27, 2009 .
Jesper Kyd GamesArt.de interview. Retrieved March 22, 2015 (English).

Individual evidence

↑ Jesper Kyd: Music crosses all platforms . In: Plarium . Retrieved February 28, 2018.

^ Hitman: Codename 47 Review. (No longer available online.) August 13, 2001, formerly in the original ; accessed on October 27, 2009 (English). ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2

↑ Aaron Boulding: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. October 2, 2002, accessed October 27, 2009 .

↑ The Chronicles Of Spellborn Features Original Score By Jesper Kyd. (No longer available online.) April 14, 2006, archived from the original on March 5, 2008 ; accessed on October 27, 2009 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.

↑ Unreal Tournament 3: The Soundtrack Announced. November 13, 2007, archived from the original on August 7, 2007 ; accessed on October 27, 2009 (English).

↑ Press Release: Heroes & Generals enlists Jesper Kyd for Soundtrack Duty. (No longer available online.) November 28, 2011; Archived from the original on December 1, 2011 ; accessed on November 28, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.

^ Jesper Kyd scores Carl Theodor Dreyer's "La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc". (No longer available online.) October 3, 2007, archived from the original on May 29, 2008 ; accessed on October 27, 2009 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.

personal data
SURNAME	Kyd, Jesper
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Danish composer
DATE OF BIRTH	3rd February 1972
PLACE OF BIRTH	Odense , Fyn, Denmark

[1] Jesper Kyd: Music crosses all platforms . In: Plarium . Retrieved February 28, 2018.