Karl Sölve Steven is an award-winning New Zealand/Swedish composer whose recent work includes Uproar (with Julian Dennison, Rhys Darby and Minnie Driver, d. Hamish Bennett and Paul Middleditch), as well as Never Look Away directed by Lucy Lawless and scored with Jason Smith, premiering at the World Documentary Competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and SXSW. His score for Ant Timpson's black comedy thriller 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. Other recent work includes Nathan Price's feature documentary for Universal The Subtle Art of Not Giving A #@%! (Winner, Best Original Music in a Feature Film APRA Screen Music Awards 2023). Karl’s soundtrack to the Black Hands series (prod. Warner Bros, series producer Robin Scholes) won Best Original Score in a Series at the APRA Screen Music Awards 2021. 2024 sees Karl scoring Ant Timpson's Bookworm, starring Elijah Wood, Nell Fisher, and Michael Smiley.
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.