Jordan Dykstra(I)
- Composer
- Music Department
- Director
Jordan Dykstra is a Brooklyn-based violist and composer of film and chamber music. He scored the 2024 Oscar Award-winning (Best Documentary Feature) "20 Days in Mariupol" which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary, scored 2 BAFTA nominations (and a win for Best Documentary), 2 Critics Choice Documentary Awards, a Cinema Eye Honors Award, a duPont-Columbia Award nomination, and the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)'s NPO Audience Award. The journalists covering the war in Ukraine which led to the film won a Pulitzer Prize Award for Journalism. Regarding 20 Days, The Hollywood Reporter stated "the raw footage is largely unembellished, save for Jordan Dykstra's eerie electronic music score that could easily be appropriated for a horror film (which, of course, 20 Days in Mariupol is, of a sort)" (Frank Scheck). The Wall Street Journal commented that the film was "aided greatly by an eerie, tonal score by Jordan Dykstra" (Kyle Smith). Isaac Ale (Film & Froth) stated "the score is something to behold. Scored akin to a horror film 20 Days in Mariupol is full of low thumping bass, dissonance, and a low persistent, pervasive presence of dread. It has ambient elements to it that stick with you, increase your heart rate and remind you that this is something that happened only a year ago and is actually still happening today. To avoid hyperbole I'll just say I really mean this, this was one of the best scores I've heard thus far this year." Indiewire mentioned the "haunting original music by Jordan Dykstra" (Adam Solomons) while Variety wrote: "Adding discreet notes of suspense is Jordan Dykstra's original score" (Dennis Harvey).
In 2023 Dykstra helped produce and conducted the score for Chloe Dumont's debut feature "Fair Play" (starring Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich) which Netflix purchased for $20 million after its premiere at Sundance. The Hollywood Reporter wrote "[the score] captured the tensions of New York, the stock trading industry and a couple on the brink" (Abby White). He also co-composed the score to the feature documentary "Shaken", which premiered at the DOC NYC Film Festival, that tackles the bad science behind shaken baby syndrome. Other 2023 credits include "Inside the Uvalde Response" which tackles the systematic failure during the school shooting in Texas, "Michael Flynn's Holy War" - winner of a 2023 Peabody Award, "Plot to Overturn the Election" - winner of the Edward R. Murrow Award for Network TV News Documentary, and the short films "La Cola del Camarón" and "One More Time With Feeling."
Previous film credits include Trey Edward Shults' 2017 thriller "It Comes at Night" (A24), the noir-mystery film "Blow the Man Down" (Amazon), Penny Lane's 2018 film "Hail Satan?" (Hulu), and Gus van Sant's 2011 film "Restless" (Sony) which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Dykstra has also worked with filmmakers associated with the esteemed filmmaker collective Avila (Brussels) on "Globes" (2021) and "Echo" (2022).
Aside from performing and recording with individuals and bands - including Dirty Projectors, A Winged Victory for the Sullen with Hildur Guðnadóttir, and Atlas Sound - Dykstra's contributions for film have been heard at Cannes, Sundance, TriBeCa, TIFF, and the IFFR, among others. As a frequent performer, his highlights include MOCA (CA), Harpa (Iceland), Musikfestval Bern (Switzerland), Ftarri (Tokyo), Le Chaff (Brussels), KM28 (Berlin), Syros Institute (Greece), Yale Union (OR), Big Ears Festival (TN), Cafe Oto (London), Ostrava Days Festival (Czech Republic), and the RISD Museum (RI). Recordings of his music (solo and collaborative) have been issued by New World Records, Domino, Milan, Important, Elsewhere, Marriage, Mexican Summer, K, Gilgongo, and Dykstra's own cottage industry label Editions Verde.
In 2023 Dykstra helped produce and conducted the score for Chloe Dumont's debut feature "Fair Play" (starring Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich) which Netflix purchased for $20 million after its premiere at Sundance. The Hollywood Reporter wrote "[the score] captured the tensions of New York, the stock trading industry and a couple on the brink" (Abby White). He also co-composed the score to the feature documentary "Shaken", which premiered at the DOC NYC Film Festival, that tackles the bad science behind shaken baby syndrome. Other 2023 credits include "Inside the Uvalde Response" which tackles the systematic failure during the school shooting in Texas, "Michael Flynn's Holy War" - winner of a 2023 Peabody Award, "Plot to Overturn the Election" - winner of the Edward R. Murrow Award for Network TV News Documentary, and the short films "La Cola del Camarón" and "One More Time With Feeling."
Previous film credits include Trey Edward Shults' 2017 thriller "It Comes at Night" (A24), the noir-mystery film "Blow the Man Down" (Amazon), Penny Lane's 2018 film "Hail Satan?" (Hulu), and Gus van Sant's 2011 film "Restless" (Sony) which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Dykstra has also worked with filmmakers associated with the esteemed filmmaker collective Avila (Brussels) on "Globes" (2021) and "Echo" (2022).
Aside from performing and recording with individuals and bands - including Dirty Projectors, A Winged Victory for the Sullen with Hildur Guðnadóttir, and Atlas Sound - Dykstra's contributions for film have been heard at Cannes, Sundance, TriBeCa, TIFF, and the IFFR, among others. As a frequent performer, his highlights include MOCA (CA), Harpa (Iceland), Musikfestval Bern (Switzerland), Ftarri (Tokyo), Le Chaff (Brussels), KM28 (Berlin), Syros Institute (Greece), Yale Union (OR), Big Ears Festival (TN), Cafe Oto (London), Ostrava Days Festival (Czech Republic), and the RISD Museum (RI). Recordings of his music (solo and collaborative) have been issued by New World Records, Domino, Milan, Important, Elsewhere, Marriage, Mexican Summer, K, Gilgongo, and Dykstra's own cottage industry label Editions Verde.