About Jacob
Danish Film Composer
Jacob Groth
Born in 1951, Jacob Groth is a Danish film and television composer. He has created music for motion pictures since 1978, always with the ambition that his compositions should be felt rather than heard.
Five times an International EMMY Awards-winner, in the past 25 years, Jacob Groth has established himself as a highly regarded composer; a reputation he intends to continue.
Famous for composing the score for the Millennium trilogy
Jacob Groth is perhaps most famous for his score work on the film trilogy based on Swedish crime author Stieg Larssons Millennium series of 3 best-selling novels ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ (nominated for Best Score at the European Film Awards), ‘The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest’ and ‘The Girl Who Played With Fire’.
In recent years, he also spent a lot of time in Los Angeles, scoring projects such as the CBS drama series ‘Unforgettable’, (a series that, aided by Groth’s atmospheric score, went on to run for 4 seasons and for which Jacob was awarded Best Music Score at the ASCAP Awards). He has also scored the NBC supernatural drama series “Midnight, Texas”.
His first major work was on the Søren Kragh-Jacobsen film debut ‘Vil du se min smukke navle?’. Jacob’s working relationship with Kragh-Jacobsen led to a long period of collaboration. Latest, he has scored “Lille Sommerfugl”, which premiered in December 2020. He also built an ongoing creative relationship with Director Rumle Hammerich which included the movie ‘Otto er et næsehorn’ in 1983 and ran up to ‘Headhunter’ in 2009.
In 2012 he teamed up once again with Millennium director Niels Arden Oplev to score the major Hollywood production ‘Dead Man Down’, starring Colin Farrell. In 2014, Groth worked on the action thriller ‘Skin Trade’ produced by and starring Dolph Lundgren.
Jacob has excelled in his Nordic TV work, from the late 90s watershed Danish drama series ‘Taxa’ and ‘Unit One’ (‘Rejseholdet’) to his Emmy Award-winning work on the early life of Hans Christian Andersen, ‘Young Andersen’. He has also added his unique compositional style to 2 seasons of the hit Swedish crime series ‘Modus’.
In 2019, Jacob released his first studio album since beginning his career as a score composer.
The album, Music For Your Inner Movie, is inspired by his joy of nature and dedicated to the young people, who are fighting to save our climate. On the album, Jacob Groth has composed the music without his usual fixed frames and is moving in a lighter direction than his well-known Nordic Noir-style.
Other recent projects include Danish-French tv-series “DNA” starring Anders W. Berthelsen and Charlotte Rampling, which has been bought by the BBC for the UK market, as well as the crime-thriller series ‘Wisting’ based on the award-winning series of books by former Norwegian homicide detective Jørn Lier Horst. The series is available to watch on both Amazon Prime and Viaplay. ‘Wisting’ has been picked up for a second season, which Jacob Groth will also be scoring, expecting to premiere in 2022.
In 2021, he was accredited with the Honorary Award at the Music Publishers Association in Denmark’s award show ‘Carl Prisen’.
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What they say about Jacob
No mood, characterization or style is outside his range. He possesses that essential quality of a dramatist: compassion for the human condition. Like a detective, he searches out the hidden heart of a story: then lifts it, translates it, into sound.
He’s also a great guy, sophisticated artistically and personally, but big-hearted, generous and warm. And you can hear it all in his music.
Great because it is made with talent, compassion and an explicit understanding of making images and music accompany each other. Great because the music dares to be majestic and very “visible” in the film.
In the roles of Composer and Director Jacob and I share a past with several films and TV series. The work extends from a western inspired score for a black comedy to a very delicate score for a sensitive drama. Jacobs music is unique for every film, because his inspiration starts with the nature and emotions of the story.
To make the choice to do a grand music score for this film was a very big step for us. It was also an unusual step for a Scandinavian film. Jacob believed with passion that this would take the film to an even higher level. I am very pleased I went with his passion.
They are stories on a grand scale with both dramatic emotions and elements of the supernatural, even if the action clearly takes place in a realistic present.
Jacob Groth’s music reflects and enhances the full scope of this complex story completely.
Not just because he is nice to work with, but also because he is so awfully good and extremely versatile.
Just listen to the blues guitar in the “Taxa” theme, the catchy music to “Unit One”, the beautiful title song in “The Eagle” and the big symphonic score to “Better Times”.
He can read a movie and keeps on experimenting until the notes are right.
The word compromise does not exist in his universe.
Since that time we have produced more than 10 films, TV and theater projects together, in all possible styles from minimalistic beat to rock, jazz, electronic and symphonic score.
We look for what we believe will give the film wings and Jacob does not give up before we find the truest expression.
Jacob has many boxes he can open, but at the bottom of each one is a little blues harmony that grabs you by the heart.
It did so much to define our tone and rhythm, our very show. It is so important to know when to go big, or small, or even silent.
Thankfully, Jacob does, and tells us when we don’t.
The music gives colour and oxygen to the emotions – the subtext, not just the text.
As a producer you really need an experienced composer, when you are responsible for such a big project, especially because we from the beginning only planned 1 feature film and 6 x 90 min TV Series.
Because of the huge success of the first feature film “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” there was a wonderful demand of two more feature films, before the broadcasting of the TV series. And we had a serious deadline from our Broadcasters, who financed the majority of the production. If we wanted to do two more feature film, we had to release them the same year as “The Girl……”.
There was an incredible pressure on our composer Jacob Groth, but he delivered beautiful music with a smile, on time, though he must have been on his knees.
So you grab a good piece of our Scandinavian talented pie, if you choose Jacob Groth as your composer. His talent and music ought to be shared, because he has already set the standard in the Scandinavian film industry for years.
