GC 2015: Niels Bye Nielsen to compose next Hitman game soundtrack

The next iteration of the series is just called “Hitman” and while it respects its roots, it also breaks new ground in terms of graphics, business model and non-linear gameplay.

For many years, BAFTA award winner Jesper Kyd accompanied the Hitman series with his soundtrack compositions. Then, suddenly, Kyd was replaced for Hitman: Absolution by Thomas Bärtschi with additional music written by Peter Kyed, Peter Peter and Dynamedion.

At Gamescom 2015, Hannes Seifert, Studio Head of Io-Interactive revealed Niels Bye Nielsen as the new composer for the next Hitman game in an exclusive interview with Nova Crystallis.

Hannes Seifert about the new composer: “We did test recordings with several composers, but in the end we decided for Niels Bye Nielsen, a Danish composer, who comes from a very experimental scene, just like Jesper Kyd. He is very creative and that supports the new sound of our game very well. “

According to his IMDb entry, Niels Bye Nielsen was born 1972 in Skive, Denmark. In 1994, he moved to Hollywood, California to study guitar at MIT. He also studied music at UCLA and has his own studio in Santa Monica.

Video games are not new to him, since he worked on additional music for several Ratchet & Clank games and composed the the soundtracks for PlayStation Move Heroes, Medieval Moves: Deadmund’s Quest and Sports Champions 2. If not for games, Nielsen concentrated on compositions for TV documentaries like American Gangster, Beyond the Glory or NASCAR Drivers: 360.

Read more about the next Hitman game in our interview, coming later this week.


About the Author

André Mackowiak

Comments