Johan Söderqvist

Johan Söderqvist is a film, television, and video game composer originally from Täby, near Stockholm, Sweden. He played keyboards in a variety of touring bands, including jazz and folk groups, before concentrating on composition. After attending the Royal College of Music, Stockholm for composition and arranging, his first film score was Agnes Cecilia: En Sällsam Historia, released in 1991. After a few more films, he wrote music for the TV mini-series Morsarvet, which aired in 1993. That year, he also released the jazz album Life (To Be) before collaborating with James Schaffer and Jojje Wadenius on music for the 1995 children’s album Till Alla Barn. Work in a variety of screen genres followed, including the crime film Beneath the Surface (Under Ytan, 1997), the family film We Can Be Heroes! (Bäst I Sverige!, 2002), the drama After the Wedding (Efter Brylluppet, 2006), and the romance Effi Briest (2009). His music could be heard in the 2010 Danish thriller, In a Better World (Hævnen), which picked up the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film the following year. Also in 2011, he became one of the regular composers for the hit crime series The Bridge (Bron/Broen). Another foreign-language Oscar nominee, 2012’s Kon-Tiki, also featured a score by Söderqvist. The composer joined the TV police procedural Spring Tide (Springfloden) in 2016. That same year, EA Music released the soundtrack for the video game Battlefield 1, which featured an orchestral score by Söderqvist and Patrik Andrén. Söderqvist’s music for the U.K. horror film The Limehouse Golem was issued by Varèse Sarabande in 2017. ~ Marcy Donelson