Sven-Åke Johansson

i sven-åke johansson (43 mariestad sweden) started as a child playing on the pans and lids my mother cooked with later i cobbled together metal buckets i’d found into a kind of drum kit my bass drum was a sawn off wine barrel i played on it and sang the popular hits of the time (in the cellar of my parents’ house) victoria victoria que sera sera etc first public performance together with an accordionist well known in our small town at one of my father’s birthday parties bought a snare drum from a friend played bass drum in a brass band then jazz with the school band (idols c. braun max roach j.j. johnsson) sometimes played at dances in the school gym it’s sand man gertrude’s bounce bohemia after dark and they’d dance spent eighteen months working as an apprentice toolmaker afterwards played (almost professional) in dance orchestras in the next town skövde bosse skoglund’s sextet (swing and popular songs) i can’t believe that you are in love with me twist twist in the summer outdoors at marksmen’s fairs i’d crouch in cellars and small rooms sometimes went to gothenburg or stockholm to see and hear something special practiced jazz pieces from records in the galaxy jazz club i opened with l. pettersson in the basement of the old regional government headquarters in mariestad the provinces were too small for me moved to stockholm at first stayed in the room of a tenor saxophonist friend from skövde h. gustavsson playing crooner numbers in the evenings at the corso dance restaurant on sveavägen (lots of south american pieces) went on tour through norrland and finland with kent silver and the silver stars in finland we had to play a tango every second dance or else there was trouble came to germany played jazz in a restaurant in münster with gerold flasse and uwe wegener met elin could only speak english 25 dm and three beers a day just a few couples in the evenings red plush and mean went to sweden västerås formed a kvartett together with bobo stensson ivar lindell and gunnar fors stopped playing dances (a pity) just concerts milestones kept on starting to play with tapes and sounds performed the son et lumière piece alphaville & at the pistolteatern and on radio.

was frequently skint help often came from my parents who sent me money wore mostly corduroy at the same time played basie pieces in lasse nilsson’s big band cute lil darling paris le chat qui peche always rode a three wheeled moped with a platform for the drum kit met gunter hampel in the blue note s w e d e n barcelona jamboree jazz cava g. fors kvartett l. bennet madrid whisky jazz club ivar ran blake p. poindexter wrote a lot of associative texts played american bases in france with daddy showbiz and hypocrisy i left my heart in san franzisko sonny boy from the juke box now detroit city played in antwerp with p. brötzmann f. von hove and peter kowald after that in numerous clubs all over germany got thrown out of jazzdomicil in munich with them my spoken german improved like many people fell in love with heidelberg berlin zodiak musik is happening norbert eisbrenner werner götz electric sounds vibraton less serious audience participation played in mental hospitals been in the countryside for a long time in mariental near helmstedt started moderne nordeuropäische dorfmusik with götz and eisbrenner still playing in mental hospitals stadtmusik 1–4 prisons schools music therapy with kids wanted to try playing concerts in care homes eye colour blue-grey-green

mariental 1970

The six compositions “Stumps” are based on the potential for variation of falling and rising short signals (notes). Repeating the theme four times at the beginning establishes the piece and provides solid primary material for the improvisations that follow. The simple repetition of the theme at the end completes the composition as a form of return.

The underlying tempi of the themes are rather gentle; there is no fixed tempo, but more of a free positioning. In the improvisations the rhythm group works on the principle of “free tempo / dynamic oscillations”; the result is swing.
The compositions were completed just before Christmas 2021 and recorded during a performance at the Berlin club Au Topsi Pohl. They are my opus magnum for small ensembles.

Sven-Åke Johansson, July 2022

A staged concert performance is presented using fifteen fire extinguishers and the sonic parameters they produce.
Two different types of fire extinguisher are used. The spectacle is created out of the hissing shapes of foam and carbon dioxide.
Variations of noise are produced as a result of using a range of flooring surfaces. A closed performance space is preferred.
The players are divided into two groups.

The texts, pictures, sketches, drawings and scores used in this Digital Guide have primarily been taken from the book “Sven-Åke Johansson. Dynamische Schwingungen mit Händen und Füßen gespielt”. We would like to thank Sven-Åke Johansson, Teresa Iten-Johansson, the wolke Verlag and Edition MusikTexte for making this material available in such kind and generous fashion.

The texts read by Sven-Åke Johansson are from his collection of texts “In St. Wendel am Schlossplatz ...” (2013).