Karl Sölve Steven

Karl Sölve Steven is an award-winning New Zealand/Swedish composer whose recent work includes "Marama" (d. Taratoa Stappard, Official Selection TIFF 2025) scored with Rob Thorne, Ant Timpson's "Bookworm" (starring Elijah Wood, Nell Fisher, and Michael Smiley), "Uproar" (starring Julian Dennison, Rhys Darby and Minnie Driver, d. Hamish Bennett and Paul Middleditch), and "Never Look Away" (Winner, Best Original Music in a Feature Film APRA Screen Music Awards 2024) directed by Lucy Lawless and scored with Jason Smith (World Documentary Competition Sundance Film Festival 2024 and SXSW 2024). 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. 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 and his and Rob Thorne's sore for the limited documentary series "Black Coast Vanishings" (prod. Augusto, series producers Cass Avery and Nicola Smith) won Best Original Score in a Series at the APRA Screen Music Awards 2024.

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 writing and producing a number of platinum selling musical projects over the years. His academic background includes a PhD in Ancient Philosophy from Trinity College Cambridge.

Together with Larsen Winiata Tito-Taylor and Ben Tawhiti he has worked on Nova Paul's experimental short films presented at the Centre Georges Pompidou and Sundance Film Festival. Karl is the son of a filmmaker and a writer, and is well known in Aotearoa New Zealand as a thoughtful collaborator and passionate story-teller.