Who is Martin Dirkov?

If you’ve seen Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice lately, you probably noticed the score — it’s hard to miss. That’s the work of Martin Dirkov, a Danish composer and sound designer who’s become one of the most interesting voices in Scandinavian cinema over the past decade.

His credits read like a who’s-who of recent thrillers and dramas: The Swedish Torpedo, The Quiet Ones, Prisoner, Holy Spider, Border (Gräns), Shorta, and now The Apprentice. He’s equally at home with tense crime stories, psychological horror, and slow-burn character pieces. For more on him, visit his official site.

Where to start on Spotify

Dirkov usually releases full score albums, which is great because you get the music exactly as it was written for the screen — no pop songs shoe-horned in, just the composer’s vision. These albums are available on Spotify:

• The Swedish Torpedo (Original Score 2024)
• The Quiet Ones (Original Score 2024)
• The Apprentice (Original Motion Picture Score 2024)
• Holy Spider (Original Motion Picture Score 2022)
• Knocking (Original Motion Picture Score 2021)
• SHORTA (Original Motion Picture Score 2020)
• Når støvet har lagt sig (When the Dust Settles) (2020)

What stands out when you actually listen

Dirkov doesn’t have one signature sound, which is rare these days. One minute he’s writing something that feels almost neo-classical (“Modern Times” from The Swedish Torpedo), the next he’s deep in gritty, pulsating electronics (“I Want Chaos”). Holy Spider layers Middle-Eastern percussion and eerie strings in a way that gives satisfying chills. Shorta’s main theme is pure adrenaline, while tracks like “Roy’s Birthday” or “Three Rules” have this dark, almost baroque weight — harpsichord-like textures that feel like they belong in a Faust remake.

He’s one of those composers who can flip genres without ever sounding like he’s trying too hard. The score always feels inevitable, like it couldn’t have been any other way.

An essential starting playlist

If you just want the highlights right now, here are eight tracks that show the range:

• Modern Times
• I Want Chaos
• Roy’s Birthday
• Three Rules
• Lights of Mashhad
• The Holy Spider
• Shorta – Main Theme
• Waiting, Pt. 1

Individual Amazon Music links above; the Spotify playlist lives here.

New work apparently drops frequently, and everything we’ve heard so far suggests he’s only getting started. Worth keeping an eye (and both ears) on.

A quick note on listening

Film scores live or die on detail. We did most of the close listening on the Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones because the noise cancellation lets the quieter passages breathe, but for proper cinematic impact at higher volume, a capable soundbar is hard to beat. Based on hundreds of Amazon customer reviews, the Samsung B-Series Soundbar HW-B550F 2.1 ch consistently stands out in its price range for punchy soundtrack playback and everyday TV viewing – see our analysis here.

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