Cristobal Tapia de Veer


Juan Cristobal Tapia de Veer, also known as Cristo, is a Chilean-born Canadian film and television score composer, arranger, producer and multi-instrumentalist based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is mostly known for his music to the British TV series Utopia, for which he won an RTS Craft & Design Award in the best original score category in 2013 as well as Channel 4's highly acclaimed National Treasure, which earned him a BAFTA in 2017.

Early life

Cristobal de Veer was born during the military coup d'état in Chile. His parents first fled to Paris, France. While his father decided to stay in France, his mother took him back to Chile. In Chile, his mother took refuge in her sister-in-law's house with Cristobal's cousins. Cristobal´s grandfather realized that his mother was being hunted down for her political convictions, and bought her and Cristobal plane tickets to Canada.

Career

De Veer obtained a master's degree in classical music 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 in 2003 with the electro-dance single "Supersex World". de Veer produced the album.

Movie and TV scoring

In 2011, de Veer's music for the Victorian four-part drama The Crimson Petal and the White 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, even if it sends the Masterpiece crowd to the medicine cabinet for Dramamine."
De Veer went on to compose the music for the Channel 4 conspiracy thriller Utopia, for which he won a Royal Television Society Craft & Design Award for "best original music" in November 2013.
"Startlingly original scoring of hyper-reality, and unlike anything we've heard before. The winner's 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."
Up again for a RTS Award in 2014, the music for the second series won the in 2015 in the best Original TV score category. His work on Utopia was also nominated for Televisual Magazine's Bulldog Award for best music.
In early 2014, de Veer completed the music for the TV-show Série noire, which aired on ICI-Radio-Canada Télé. 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.
He also finished the works on BBC's Jamaica Inn, directed by Phillipa Lowthorpe.
De Veer set the tone for AMC's / Channel 4's co-production Humans in its first season, which became Channel 4's biggest drama hit in 20 years.
In 2016 de Veer 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.
He couldn't continue 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 de Biarritz, France, for Cristo's original score.
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.
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.
Cristo 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 alongside Douglas Hodge.
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.
The innovative Cannes International Series Festival in France, CannesSeries, invited Cristo to be part of the jury for their 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.
Cristo went on to score his second feature film in late 2018, an adaptatation of Antonio Orejudo's dark novel 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. The film will compete in the official selection of SITGES - Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya in Oktober 2019 and will be released through Filmax on November 8th, 2019.
On January 19, 2018, de Veer released music through Lakeshore Records for an episode of
Black Mirror'', entitled "Black Museum".