Black Coast Vanishings

KARL SOLVE STEVENS

Karl is a New Zealand/Swedish composer writing primarily for film and television. His work has received multiple awards, including Best Original Music in a Feature Film (APRA Silver Scrolls 2020/2023), Best Original Score (NZTV Awards 2018), and Best Original Music in a TV Series (APRA Silver Scrolls 2016 and 2019).

Karl dedicated himself to music from a young age, making recordings with his parents’ old reel-to-reel tape recorder, building 'instruments', and gradually acquiring synthesisers, samplers, and sequencers along the way. At 17, he worked as a trainee sound engineer at Mandrill Recording Studios, working extensively with tape and early digital technologies. Around this time, he began composing theme music, soundtracks, and scores for films and producing recordings for artists such as Bic Runga, Thorazine Shuffle, and The Vietnam War. He has written for, performed in, and toured extensively with several groups, including Supergroove, The Drab Doo-Riffs, Heart Attack Alley, and Queen Neptune. In 2013, he was the recipient of the APRA PDA award for film and is an inductee in Te Whare Taonga Pūoro O Aotearoa, the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame.

ROB THORNE M.A. (Ngāti Tumutumu)

Composer, performer and anthropologist, Rob has blended the ancient voices of taonga pūoro with modern musical sounds and technologies for 25 years. His Rattle debut, Whaia te Maramatanga, is a captivating dialogue between the past and the present, the old and the new, and a musical exploration of identity and connection. Rob's innovative use of technology produces aural experiences of timeless beauty, showcasing his unique approach to music.

Informed by his musical and academic experience, he has performed extensively with a wide range of collaborators and as a solo artist within alternative music scenes (free noise, experimental, improvisational sound art). He has an MA in Social Anthropology, and his Post Graduate Diploma research, "Kōauau: The Music Within", successfully toured regional New Zealand for five years. Rob regularly travels the country to research museum collections, teach and lecture, and collaborate with academic and musical masters such as Richard Nunns and Phil Dadson.

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