Born in South Africa, Karen studied theatre and then worked as a performer for five years before moving to France.
Her first professional involvement in music came when she was asked to record the theme song for a French series she had worked on in South Africa.
Since then, she has been writing songs and arranging them mostly with musicians in Paris. The lyrics are predominantly in English.
She also wrote the music for a short film entitled "Macadam Lovers" which was filmed in Morocco.
In 1996 she moved to England for four years where she recorded her debut album "Wayward" with Simon Gogerly (Grammy Award Winner, 2006).
Karen's work is influenced by her interest in world music. Her approach to songwriting is theatrical in the sense that each song is treated as a story with its own mood, atmosphere and tension. The style she claims is "incidental" or "accidental" and has been described as romantic, trip hop-ish, arabesque, dark, poetic and impressionistic.
Besides working on her own material, she has also featured on the sound tracks "Bonne Esperance" (Milan) and "Mon père ce héros" (BMG).
She spent some time in Copenhagen collaborating in the songwriting of Nina Forsberg's recent album "Twelve Rounds" (BMG).
She recently collaborated with the French instrumental group "Loki's Mountain" on an EP entitled "Soulferino".
Karen is presently in the final stages of recording new album material.
She is working in Paris with various musicians on a project entitled "Stung".