Karel Albert was born in Antwerp on 16 April 1901. He studied at the Royal Flemish Music Conservatory in his native city, and subsequently with Marinus De Jong. In 1929 he took a position as a music teacher at the State High School in Antwerp. In 1933 he became the secretary of the music department of the former N.I.R. (Belgian National Broadcasting Service). In 1936 he was appointed head of the department and was promoted to assistant-director three years later. After an interruption during the Second World War, Albert continued to work at the N.I.R until 1961, when he retired at the age of 60. In retirement he was the music critic for the weekly publication, Het Toneel, until 1970. He had in fact worked as a critic throughout his life, writing for several publications, including Kunst, Vlaamse Arbeid, and Music. A selection of his articles were published as the book Over muziek gesproken… in 1982. Karel Albert died in 1987 in Liedekerke (Belgium).

Together with August L. Baeyens and Willem Pelemans, Albert promoted modern music in Flanders in the years after the First World War. These innovators organised a concert consisting mainly of their own new compositions in Brussels as early as 1922. This initiative was followed up by several smaller concerts in Antwerp and Brussels. Karel Albert’s friend and colleague, August Baeyens, subsequently founded a chamber music ensemble in Antwerp in 1927 dedicated to the advancement of modern Flemish music. In this period, Albert went under the pseudonym of K. Victors. His earliest successes, which established his reputation as a composer, were compositions for the theatre written between 1924 and 1932 for the Vlaamse Volkstoneel and the avant-garde Théâtre du Marais in Brussels. Through this functional music he played a major role in the gradual acceptance of modern music by a broader audience. His music for the theatre was firmly rooted in the renewal of the theatre which was taking place in Flanders at the time. In 1947 he produced a book for the general public on music history from antiquity to Beethoven, which made use of phonographic recordings.