COMPOSER FOR FILM, TELEVISION AND COMMERCIALS
Composer for Features, Television, and Commercials.
Lasse Elkjaer is a Los Angeles based Danish composer, orchestrator, song producer, and multi-instrumentalist (guitar, bass, piano, violin, guitarviol, world percussion, amongst others) with over 20 years’ experience in the industry, and a resume of over 70 films. Elkjaer was recently awarded for his score for the movie Sticks (2018), a gothic scare ride where Elkjaer worked with Hollywood cellist Tina Guo, whose cello can be heard frequently on scores by Hans Zimmer, such as The Lion King (2019).
Elkjaer is also a longtime collaborator of five-time Emmy winning composer Jacob Groth, Dead Man Down (2013), The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2009) and Golden Globe-nominated composer Christopher Young, Spiderman 3 (2007), Swordfish (2001), and Hellraiser (1987).
Since moving to LA in 2013, Elkjaer has worked on movies such as Dead Man Down (2013), Bad Santa 2 (2016), and the Chinese epic block buster Monkey King 2 (2016). Elkjaer also did additional arrangements for the suite "Suite Dreams," with music composed by Christopher Young, from the feature film A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 - Freddy's revenge (1985). The suite was released through Varèse Sarabande Records, and was part of the massive 8 CD box set of the "A Nightmare On Elm Street" series (2015). Elkjaer’s TV credits include NBC supernatural TV series Midnight, Texas (2017-2018), and Netflix TV series Lost In Space (2018-). Recent projects include working as a suite arranger on the world premiere of the Drag Me to Hell suite, composed by Christopher Young, and performed by the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, at Fimucité’s “My Favorite Fears” concert in Tenerife, Spain, When it Strikes (2019), which premiered at the Nordic International Film Festival in New York, and Viking Blood (2019), a US/DK feature film currently distributed on all major streaming platforms worldwide.
2019 was a very prolific year for Lasse Eljkaer who added two feaure film scores to his film credit list, and was selected as winning composer for the Live Score Music Festival in Los Angeles, performed by the Helix Collective Ensemble at the Barnsdall Theater in Hollywood. Elkjaer’s work for the horror film Sticks (2018) was selected for the Fulbright Film Festival at the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles. Recently, he completed music for an educational animation series by ClassDojo with tens of millions of viewers worldwide. Elkjaer just started a series of lectures with Industry Club for Film and Media Composers in Denmark (BFM), and is currently working on releasing his back catalog of film scores.
"Sticks has an extremely exciting soundtrack, where both sound and music carry the horror to the point of excellence." Filmkraft 2018 (DK)
Five-time Emmy winning Danish composer Jacob Groth, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2009), brought me onboard to do music arrangements for his TV series Midnight, Texas. Midnight, Texas is an American supernatural drama broadcast on NBC, and based on the book series by the same title, by author Charlaine Harris, who also wrote The Southern Vampire Mysteries, the series of novels that the True Blood TV series is based on.
FABLE is the pitch I wrote for a gothic horror film. I chose to work with the Budapest Art Orchestra, and record with an ensemble of 60 players. I wanted a dense sound, with 4 horns, a large string section, and woodwinds. FABLE embraces both the epic and grueling, but also the romantic and ominous. Continuing the tradition of recording scores with a live orchestra
My love story with horror goes back to the 80s, when I as a kid in the middle of the VHS boom, watched Hitchcock’s The Birds for the first time, and then spent entire weekends for several years, devouring horror movies. The first music that was played in my car, was a soundtrack by Golden Globe-nominated composer Christopher Young: the epic, yet romantic and ominous soundtrack to Clive Barker's supernatural horror feature Hellraiser (1987). When I moved to Los Angeles, I was incredibly honored to meet Christopher Young, who eventually became my mentor. I spent several formative years working with, and learning from Christopher Young. This Academy Originals video gives a unique insight into how Christopher Young worked with me and the rest of his team, from original idea to final composition.
Letter of recommondation by Christopher Young (August 11, 2014)
As a fan of the score for the 80s American slasher Freddy's Revenge (1985), and growing up with the Elm Street movies, it was a special treat to work in close collaboration with film composer Christopher Young, using original recordings and previously unreleased cues. I did additional arrangements on the suite "Suite Dreams,” which consists of music from the feature film A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 - Freddy's Revenge (1985). The suite was released through Varèse Sarabande Records, as a part of the massive 8 CD deluxe package box set of the "A Nightmare On Elm Street" series (2015), and released on a limited edition of 2000 copies.
The 50-odd minute long, zombie action/horror film Opstandelsen (2010), quickly became a resume-building passion project of mine. We are talking about ultra low budget, and generally unexperienced cast and crew, but we were all very committed and respected the Director’s vision for the horror in the movie. Even though I feel that this little gem belongs to the past, it needs to be mentioned, because it led to me being admitted to the Danish Conservatory to study film composition, and eventually meet film composer Jacob Groth, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2009), who hired me as his orchestrator for several projects. Opstandelsen also brought me to the United States, to take part in the Chicago Horror Film Festival, which encouraged me to move to Los Angeles. Interesting fact, is that I recently found several online reviews for Opstandelsen, and learned that the movie has gathered momentum and status as a hidden indy-horror gem.
Before starting out my career as a film composer, I spent several years playing in rock and instrumental prog metal bands. This caught the attention of Danish genre film director Shaky González, Det grå guld (2013), Angel of the Night (1998) who commissioned me to write the music for teasers, acting as pitches for two of his fantasy horror feature film projects, Demon Slayer (2011), and the supernatural Bollywood love story Rakshasa (2010). Even though the features never got into production, the teasers managed to tour major genre film festivals in Denmark, and act as a fun throwback to the synth and 80s guitar driven Grindhouse days.
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November 18, 2023
The music I wrote for the Danish Sci-fi Drama 'Kazarians Pagt / Light of my Eyes' was nominated in the category ' Best Original Music' at EKKO SHORTLIST AWARD 2023.
Janurary 27, 2023
Spotify release of the EP from my experimental project THE DARK TAPES.
@ 2023 by Lasse Elkjær