Karl Sölve Steven is an award winning New Zealand/Swedish composer of music to picture. His score for "Come To Daddy" (starring Elijah Wood) was celebrated by reviewers (Variety, Rue Morgue, Film Music Magazine), won the APRA Screen Music Award for Best Music in a Feature Film, and was among the Film Music Institute's Best Scores of 2020. His long-form work has aired on BBC One, Acorn, Viaplay, Netflix, Seven Network, and BBC America. Karl’s recent soundtrack to Universal’s “The Subtle Art of Not Giving A #@%!” won the award for Best Original Music in a Feature Film at the 2023 APRA Screen Music Awards, and his score for the limited series “Black Hands” won Best Original Score in a Series at the APRA Screen Music Awards 2021 (selections from it having been performed in concert by the Kulios String Trio). Theatrical work includes Hamish Bennett and Paul Middleditch’s feature “Uproar”, Gaysorn Thavat’s “The Justice of Bunny King”, feature documentaries “The Girl on the Bridge” and “A Mild Touch of Cancer”, and “Bellbird” (finalist Best Original Music in a Feature Film APRA Screen Music Awards 2019). Small-screen projects include limited series “The Bad Seed (Winner Best Original Music in a TV Series APRA Screen Music Awards 2019), telefeature “Resolve” (Winner Best Original Score NZTV Awards 2018), and three seasons of Seven Network Australia and South Pacific Pictures' 800 Words (Winner Best Original Music in a TV Series APRA Screen Music Awards 2016, finalist Best Original Music in a TV Series APRA Silver Scrolls 2017).
Karl comes from a background in studio engineering, where as a teenager he trained in both digital and tape production, and he has been heavily involved with a number of musical projects over the years, helping to compose and produce gold and platinum selling albums and singles (more of which can be read about here). His academic background includes a PhD from Trinity College Cambridge, and in 2013 he was the recipient of the APRA PDA Award for Film and Television and attended the celebrated ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop at NYU. He has curated musical events at the Auckland Town Hall and War Memorial Museum/Tāmaki Paenga Hira, and collaborated with iconic guitarist the late Ben Tawhiti on the soundtrack to Nova Paul’s experimental 16mm short film “This Is Not Dying”, which has screened at the George Pompidou Centre in Paris.
The son of a filmmaker and a writer, Karl is a thoughtful collaborator and passionate story-teller who brings to his work an original perspective and sensitive ear.