Arthur Sharpe, an Ivor Novello Award-winning composer of Japanese-English heritage whose film and television scores often blend quirky, eerie, and somber tones, frequently contributes to projects helmed by his brother Will. Their joint efforts encompass the well-received 2016 black comedy series Flowers and the 2021 feature The Electrical Life of Louis Wain. Though his primary output centers on soundtracks, Sharpe has intermittently issued understated indie folk recordings both solo and through the ensemble Arthur in Colour.
Portions of his childhood unfolded in Tokyo prior to the family's relocation to London. He subsequently enrolled at Edinburgh University, where he supplied music for multiple Cambridge Footlights productions during his brother's tenure as president of that amateur dramatic society. One such show to reach the Edinburgh Fringe was the sketch revue Grow Up. Sharpe next created the score for the 2009 short Gokiburi, co-directed by Will and Tom Kingsley, and later joined Ralegh Long to co-score the duo's BAFTA-winning first feature, Black Pond, in 2011.
In May 2012 he independently issued the wistful yet lighthearted solo album ...and then I lost my voice, followed in November by Malatrophy, the inaugural EP from Arthur in Colour. This indie quintet, led by Sharpe, also included Will, Lewis Bremner, actress Helen Cripps, and costume designer Lizzie Owens. Kingsley and Will's subsequent feature The Darkest Universe, released in April 2016, again received a joint score from Sharpe and Long, incorporating performances by the Navarra String Quartet. That same month Flowers premiered, exposing Sharpe's work to its largest audience yet and securing him an RTS Craft & Design Award for Best Original Music on the initial season plus the Ivor Novello Award for Best Television Soundtrack on the follow-up. Amid these honors, Arthur in Colour issued their first full-length album, 2017's Nocturnalism, with minimal notice. The next year Sharpe composed for The Lost Films of Bloody Nora, a short written and directed by actress Sophia Di Martino, who is also his brother's partner.
Further high-profile television assignments followed, starting with the score for Lorna Martin and Sharon Horgan's 2018 Dublin-set sitcom Women on the Verge and continuing with contributions to the debut season of Kingsley's BBC comedy Ghosts. Sharpe's work on Neil Forsyth's first BBC Scotland drama Guilt coincided with scoring duties for his brother's 2021 feature The Electrical Life of Louis Wain. Before year's end another sibling collaboration reached screens, the darkly comic miniseries Landscapers.
