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 at age 14, and later an
Amiga. He and Mikael Balle became members of the
demogroup Silents DK, and later started collaborating with a group of
coders known as Crionics. They eventually made the
Amiga demoscene 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 and a game called
Sub-Terrania for the
Sega Genesis. The team then relocated to
Boston. 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 for the
Sega Genesis. Zyrinx dissolved when their game publisher Scavenger went bankrupt.
Freelance Many former Zyrinx members returned to Denmark to start
IO Interactive, but Kyd moved to New York City and set up his own sound studio in
Manhattan 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. He recorded the score for the action/adventure
Freedom Fighters with the Hungarian Radio choir. It was described by
Film Score Monthly Magazine as "
Vangelis on steroids". He used modern
electronica 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 ''
Assassin's Creed. This was followed by the soundtrack for Assassin's Creed II (2009), Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (2010), and Assassin's Creed: Revelations'' (2011), the latter in collaboration with
Lorne Balfe. Kyd was personally responsible for composing the now-famous "Ezio's Family" for ''Assassin's Creed II''; the track would become the unofficial theme of the Assassin's Creed franchise, being remixed and sampled in every subsequent soundtrack in the franchise. Kyd also wrote music for several games in the
Borderlands franchise, as well as the soundtrack for
Darksiders II, notable for being his first entirely non-digital score. In 2020, Kyd returned to the ''Assassin's Creed
franchise with Assassin's Creed: Valhalla'', alongside
Sarah Schachner and
Einar Selvik. ==Influences==