Jesper Kyd

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Jesper Kyd

Background information
Birth name Jesper Kyd
Origin Flag of Denmark Copenhagen, Denmark
Genre(s) Electronic music
Ambient
Symphonic
Occupation(s) Musician
Composer
Instrument(s) Personal computer
Keyboards
Associated
acts		 Silents DK

Jesper Kyd (born in Copenhagen, Denmark) is a video game and film music composer. He combines sounds of ambient, electronic and symphonic music and has won many awards. He is also notable for his work in the demo scene where he composed a large amount of music in his teenage years.

Contents

[edit] Early years

Jesper Kyd started playing piano at an early age. Later, he took several years of training in classical guitar, note reading, choir singing and classical composition on piano.

He was always more interested in the compositional aspects of music rather than just playing other people's compositions. When he was 14, his interest in music started to grow when he received a Commodore 64 which enabled him to compose his own music. Around this time he joined the demo scene and started creating music for different demo groups on the Commodore 64. Several years later, he got an Amiga which had much better sound processing capabilities and he was now able to compose music with samples in it. He, along with his good friend and collaborator, Mikael Balle, became a member of the demo group Silents DK, and after some time started collaborating with a group of coders known as crionics, which would arguably later prove vital for his professional career. They eventually made the legendary Amiga demoscene production Hardwired.

He also created and scored the first wild demo ever Global Trash 2 together with Mikael Balle.

[edit] Establishing his career

At this point Jesper Kyd decided to quit the demo scene and focus on a professional career as a game musician. He and his demo scene friends who had collaborated on the Hardwired demo created the computer game development team "Zyrinx" and started working on a game called Subterrania for the Sega Genesis. The game was successful and the music of the game got very good reviews, many stating it was "Some of the best ever" for this particular system.

Since the game was a commercial success Jesper Kyd and the rest of the team relocated to Boston in the USA. Kyd composed music for 2 more Zyrinx titles, Red Zone (ironicly the beta-stage name for Red Zone was Hardwired and it's PD rom) and Scorcher as well as the music for two externally developed games, Amok and The Adventures of Batman and Robin before their game publisher Scavenger went bankrupt, which caused the Zyrinx team to dissolve as well.

[edit] Going freelance

In spite of his friends going back to Denmark to start IO Interactive, Jesper Kyd decided to move to New York City and set up his own sound studio in Manhattan called "Nano studios". Though it is generally considered hard to get jobs as a freelance musician in the computer game industry Kyd managed to get some jobs since he had made lots of connections in the industry while living in the US, and perhaps most importantly it had always been the plan for him to score the upcoming games from IO Interactive.

[edit] Real breakthrough

Jesper Kyd's real fame comes with the release of Hitman: Codename 47. The soundtrack was based on urban soundscapes and ethnic instrumentation. It immediately took the focus of many magazines around the world. Mp3.com declared that "The theme song to the original Hitman is arguably one of the best pieces of video game theme music so far this decade" [1].

His next huge step was recording the soundtrack of Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. The soundtrack was recorded with 110 musicians of the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and Choir. “The music of most big budget action movies won’t move you like the music of Hitman 2,” said IGN [2].

His next soundtrack contained a heroic and densely atmospheric music for the epic action/adventure Freedom Fighters. He recorded the score with the Hungarian Radio choir. It further established him as one of the leading, innovative A-list composers in interactive entertainment. It was described by Film Score Monthly Magazine as "Vangelis on steroids". Billboard Digital Entertainment Awards nominated him for Best Use of Soundtrack, meanwhile, Game Audio Network Guild Awards nominated him for "Best Original Vocal Song – Choral" (for Main Title and March of the Empire). Leading video game web site GameSpot awarded Freedom Fighters "Best Music of the Year".

His unique fusion of modern electronica and brooding symphonic and choral grooves featured in Hitman: Contracts, which garnered international critical acclaim as one of the truly groundbreaking original soundtracks. It was awarded Best Original Music by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts at the 2005 BAFTA Games Awards and won Best Cinematic / Cut-Scene Audio at the 2005 G.A.N.G. Awards. "Many have tried to turn a video game soundtrack into a musical experience. But few have succeeded in creating a coherent, satisfying listening experience as well as Jesper Kyd," noted EQ Magazine [3].

Kyd's other works include the modern anime video game soundtrack for Robotech: Invasion, the cinematics for Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory directed by Andy Davis and the soundtrack of Hitman: Blood Money, which features a bombastic live orchestral and choral score recorded with 150 musicians of the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and Hungarian Radio Choir, with additional electronic music. His upcoming works include the fantasy MMORPG The Chronicles Of Spellborn, and the sci-fi epic Unreal Tournament 2007. He is also scoring next generation titles for Ubisoft and Eidos Interactive.

Jesper currently lives in Los Angeles.

[edit] Games

[edit] Movies

  • Impulse
  • Stranger
  • Night All Day
  • Death of a Salewoman
  • PURE
  • Day Pass
  • Cycle
  • Paper plane Man
  • Going with Neill
  • The Lion Tamer
  • Organizm
  • Play
  • Gameplanet Spots
  • Elevatoren

[edit] Awards and nominations

  • 2006 MTV Video Music Awards Best Video Game Score
  • BAFTA 2005 Best Original Music Award (British Academy Award)
  • Billboard Awards Finalist 2004 Best Music
  • GameSpot 2003 Best Soundtrack of the Year Award
  • IGN 2004 Best Soundtrack Finalist
  • G.A.N.G. 2005 Hitman Contracts
  • G.A.N.G. 2004 Freedom Fighters
  • G.A.N.G. 2003 Hitman 2
  • Game Reactor 2003 Best Original Soundtrack Award
  • PSE2 Editor's Choice GOLD - Freedom Fighters Soundtrack CD
  • PSE2 Editor's Choice GOLD - Hitman Contracts Soundtrack CD
  • PSE2 Editor's Choice GOLD - Hitman 2 Soundtrack CD
  • Games Agent 2002 Best Original Soundtrack Award
  • GameSpot 2002 Best Original Soundtrack Of The Year Nomination
  • X-Sages 2002 Soundtrack Of The Year Nomination
  • Action Vault 2002 Outstanding Achievement In Music
  • IGN 2002 Best Sound Nomination
  • Bolt Games Bolt Games Music Awards

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.jesperkyd.com
  2. ^ http://www.jesperkyd.com
  3. ^ http://www.jesperkyd.com

[edit] External links

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