Emerging from the raw, acoustic textures of the wilderness comes the APEX (Soundtrack From The Netflix Film), featuring a hauntingly visceral score by acclaimed Icelandic composer Högni. Timed with the film’s worldwide premiere on Netflix, the soundtrack offers a departure from traditional thriller music. Eschewing the industry’s standard synth-heavy tropes in favor of a daringly organic approach, Högni spent two months on location in Australia’s Blue Mountains to build a sonic world rooted in the acoustics of the wild. By strictly avoiding electronics to maintain a “non-urban” atmosphere, he integrated avian and insect-inspired instrumentation, utilizing woodwinds like oboes and bassoons to create “jittering,” animalistic textures that mirror the film’s predatory environment.
The resulting score is a study in dichotomy: balancing regal, melodic themes for the human characters against the fragmented chaos of the wilderness.
Högni notes, “The score for Apex grew out of a search for a musical language that could hold both the physical vastness of the landscape and the inner tension of the story. Working with a large orchestra, I drew inspiration from Australian birdlife to shape a sound world that feels both elemental and intimate, reflecting the duality at the heart of the film, where the predator is not separate from nature, but an expression of it. It’s a score about opposing forces held in balance: control and surrender, instinct and awareness, human and wilderness.”
APEX (Soundtrack from the Netflix Film) is now available, featuring a daringly organic score by Icelandic composer Högni.
ABOUT APEX
A grieving woman testing her limits in the Australian wilderness is suddenly ensnared in a deadly game with a ruthless predator.
ABOUT HÖGNI
Högni Egilsson (b. 1985) is an Icelandic composer and performer working across concert music, film, and contemporary songwriting. His work moves between acoustic and electronic worlds, often exploring the relationship between musical language and narrative form.
His film and television work includes the score for Touch (Focus Features, 2024), directed by Baltasar Kormákur, the most attended film in Iceland that year. The score was noted by Variety for its “tender” and “moving” qualities, and by Screen Daily for its role as a “connective tissue” within the narrative. He received a nomination for the Nordic Film Music Awards at the Berlinale in 2025 and was named Composer of the Year at the Icelandic Academy Awards. His work also includes the Netflix series Katla (2021), the historical drama King and Conqueror (CBS, 2024), and the feature film Apex (Netflix, 2026).
He emerged with the band Hjaltalín, whose debut album Sleepdrunk Seasons (2007) established him as a distinctive voice in Icelandic music. The band’s subsequent releases, Terminal (2009) and Enter 4 (2012), received critical acclaim for their combination of melodic clarity and experimental texture. In 2011, he joined the electronic group Gus Gus, contributing to albums including Arabian Horse and Mexico, which expanded his international profile. His solo album Two Trains (2017), nominated for the Nordic Music Prize, marked a shift toward a more personal and conceptually driven musical language.
Alongside his work for screen and stage, Egilsson has developed a growing body of concert music. His Symphony No. 1 was premiered by the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra in 2022, and AGON (2021), a three-movement chamber work commissioned by Anna Thorvaldsdottir for Elektra Ensemble and National Radio 1, reflects his interest in form as a psychological force unfolding in sound. In 2023, he joined Wise Music Publishing (Edition Wilhelm Hansen), with his solo violin work Transparency scheduled for release in 2026.
His interdisciplinary work includes the multimedia installations Circleight and The Orator, as well as the documentary The Hero’s Journey to the Third Pole (2020), co-produced with Andri Snær Magnason, focusing on mental health awareness in Nepal. He has also taught at the University of Iceland, exploring the relationship between algorithmic systems and artistic expression.
TRACKLIST
- Apex
- Tommy
- Mountain
- Hunters
- Adrenalin Junky
- Outback
- The Hunt Begins
- Crossbow
- Ravine
- Capture
- Cave
- Escape
- Stale Mate
- Climb
- Sunset
- All Of Them
