Cristobal Tapia de Veer

Cristobal Tapia de Veer was born during the 1973 military coup d'état in Chile. First, his parents fled to Paris, France. While his father decided to stay there, his mother took him back to Chile. Life under Pinochet's dictatorship still proved impossible, so they found political refuge in Québec.[1]

Cristo obtained a master's degree in classical music (specializing in percussion) from the Conservatoire de musique du Québec. In 2001 he signed to Warner Music with his pop-band One Ton, putting a hold on his classical career. The trio won the Canadian Dance Music Award (SOCAN) in 2003 with the electro-dance single "Supersex World".[2] Cristo produced the album.[3]

In 2011, his music for the Victorian four-part drama The Crimson Petal and the White (directed by Marc Munden, BBC2) was well received by critics. Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe, said: "The soundtrack ranges from gnawing electronic hums to choral ecstasy. It's all brilliantly, effectively, appropriately jarring".[4]

He went on to compose the music for the Channel 4 conspiracy thriller Utopia (created by Dennis Kelly) for which he won a Royal Television Society Craft & Design Award for "best original music"in November 2013.[5] The judges stated his "work blurred the lines between sound design and score, creating a soundtrack that the jury said felt like it was being played inside your head".[6] Up again for a RTS Award in 2014, the music for the second series won the Music & Sound Award in 2015 in the best Original TV score category.[7] His work on Utopia was nominated for Televisual Magazine's Bulldog Award for best music and subsequently released on yellow and green vinyl.[8][9]

In early 2014, Cristo completed the music for the TV-show Série noire, which aired on ICI-Radio-Canada Télé.[10] The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television awarded him with 2 Prix Gémeaux for best Original Music and Best Musical Theme the same year and again in 2016 for the second season.[11][12]

He also finished the works on BBC's Jamaica Inn, directed by Phillipa Lowthorpe (BAFTA award-winner for Call the Midwife).[13] Cristo then wrote the music for the first season of AMC's / Channel 4's co-production Humans,[5] which became Channel 4's biggest drama hit in 20 years.[14]

In 2016 he scored his first feature film, The Girl with All the Gifts, which opened the Locarno Film Festival. His music won in the Best Original Music category at the Festival international du film fantastique de Gérardmer, France, in 2017, and was hailed among fans and critics. Paramount Pictures used his opening theme, GIFTED, for the final trailer of the 2019 remake of Pet Sematary and Playstation for their videogame Call of Cthulhu.[15][16]

Cristo was unable to score the following season of Humans, because he teamed up with Marc Munden again, to work on National Treasure, Channel 4’s four-part drama inspired by Operation Yewtree, the police investigation into the sexual abuse perpetrated by Jimmy Savile and allegations against other media personalities. The mini-tv-series was a major success in Europe, earning several prizes, as well as a BAFTA and a FIPA D'OR at the Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels in Biarritz, France, for Cristo's original score.[17][18]

BBC America's series Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency found a strong fanbase in 2016, which is still waiting for a soundtrack album to be released. Due to Cristo's heavily charged schedule, he was not able to work on the second season.[19]

In the same year Amazon Prime offered Cristo to work on two episodes of the anthology series Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams. He worked on HUMAN IS, starring Bryan Cranston as well as CRAZY DIAMOND, starring Steve Buscemi, for which he got a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award the following year. [20]

He also scored the Season 4 Finale of Netflix' dark futuristic cult series Black Mirror created and written by Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones. The episode is entitled Black Museum with Letitia Wright, known for her previous roles in Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War alongside Douglas Hodge.[21]

SOCAN awarded him with the SOCAN International Achievement Award in fall 2017, marking the first time that a composer for film and television has been awarded the prize. Previous recipients of the award include bands such as Arcade Fire.[22]

The innovative Cannes International Series Festival in France, CanneSeries, invited Cristo to be part of the jury for its first edition in 2018, alongside The Wire star Michael Kenneth Williams, German actress Paula Beer, Palme d'Or winner Melisa Sozen, French screenwriter and director Audrey Fouché known for Borgias, and Safe creator Harlan Coben.[23]

He then scored his second feature film in late 2018, an adaptation of Antonio Orejudo's dark novel Advantages of Traveling by Train, Ventajas de viajar en tren, directed by Aritz Moreno and produced by Morena Films in Spain. The anticipated first feature by Moreno unites a stellar cast, including Luis Tosar, Pilar Castro, Javier Botet and many more.[24] Moreno's first feature competed in major Film Festivals such as SITGES - Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya, TOKYO International Film Festival, Brussels International Film, and was decorated as best Comedy at the Premios Goya in 2020.[25] Cristo's music for the film earned him a nomination at Spain's Premios Feroz [26]

Releases in 2020 include Jordan Peele's produced show Hunters for Amazon Prime, starring Al Pacino.[27], and the inventive drama The Third Day, written by Dennis Kelly in collaboration with Felix Barrett of immersice theatre company Punchdrunk International, produced by Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainement for HBO/ SKY, in which Jude Law and Naomie Harris give stellar performances.[28]

• Cristobal Tapia de Veer at IMDb
• Cristobal Tapia de Veer on SoundCloud