Sven-Åke Johansson
Sven-Åke Johansson was a Swedish drummer, accordionist, composer and poet, born in Mariestad in 1943. He settled in Berlin in the late 1960s and was among the first European drummers to play free jazz, recording For Adolphe Sax (1967) and Machine Gun (1968) with Peter Brötzmann. In 1972 he made Schlingerland, an early solo free drum record, issued on his own SÅJ label. From 1976 he kept a long duo with pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, and later worked with Jan Jelinek, among many others. At the accordion he sang and improvised verse, and he wrote pieces for tractors, cardboard boxes and fire extinguishers. He died in June 2025, aged 82.
Sven-Åke Johansson was a Swedish drummer, accordionist, composer and poet, born in Mariestad in 1943. He settled in Berlin in the late 1960s and was among the first European drummers to play free jazz, recording For Adolphe Sax (1967) and Machine Gun (1968) with Peter Brötzmann. In 1972 he made Schlingerland, an early solo free drum record, issued on his own SÅJ label. From 1976 he kept a long duo with pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, and later worked with Jan Jelinek, among many others. At the accordion he sang and improvised verse, and he wrote pieces for tractors, cardboard boxes and fire extinguishers. He died in June 2025, aged 82.
In Early November
Two historical heavyweights of European free music, clarinetist Rüdiger Carl and drummer Sven-Åke Johansson, join forces with younger bassist Joel Grip for a night of incredible trios. Recorded a few months before the pandemic clampdown, in November of 2019, at Berlin's Au Topsi Pohl, the music is exploratory and swinging, with Carl's viscous clarinet and a brilliant rhythm team steeped in time-based feel but loose and sometimes oblique. Johansson was part of the first Peter Brötzmann Trio to …
Night Music
**Edition of 300** "Night Music" unearthes Sven-Åke Johansson's very first recordings from 1964 – made with his Tandberg tape recorder in the Kronenburg Bar, a dive bar in the red-light district in Münster/Westfalen (West Germany). There he performed jazz versions of popular songs and standards with Uwe Wegner (piano) and Gerold Flasse (double bass), sometimes joined by Dutch singer Jenny Gordee. Young Udo Lindenberg was a frequent guest at the Kronenburg Bar. Side A of the LP features 7 songs …
Automatismus der Rotation
* 2020 Stock * 1000 people watching a tractor concert in southern Sweden is only one event documented in this magnificently designed book. "Automatism of the Rotation" presents several of Sven-Ake Johansson pieces of music written for automobiles: crescendo and decrescendo – elements of classical composing – find their way into a world of familiar sounds presented in a new light. Honking signals from cars, the sound of Harley Davidsons, windwheels and other sources of sound are being interpreted…
Djungelmusik Med Sang
Rüdiger Carl: accordion, clarinet; Sven-Åke Johansson: accordion, drums and voice. "Recorded 1997 at the book and record store Andra Böcker och Skivor in Stockholm. This CD featuring two of the most innovative improvisors in Europe is the first released recording of the duo since 1985. Carl and Johansson's music isn't tied to any genre, but instead flows freely over both known and unknown territories, in it's own unique way. Sound-wise, the CD has a special focus: every track on Djungelmusik med…
Blue for a Moment
Blue for a Moment retraces the artistic career of the Berlin-based Swedish jazz musician, avant-garde composer, poet and visual artist Sven-Åke Johansson, one of the most singular and exciting figures in European improvised music.
Johansson (born 1943 in Mariestad) moved to Berlin in the late 1960s, where he has since been active in a variety of music and artistic contexts. His first performances took place in the context of the Zodiak Free Arts Lab on Hallesches Ufer, where young musicians and …
Seewetter
Marine weather reports recorded from radio broadcasts by Sven-Åke Johansson in 1970 at the Kollektiv für Kommunikative und Ästhetische Forschung in Mariental, Lower Saxony, Germany. Edition of 300 with printed inner sleeve containing liner notes by Thomas Millroth about forms of artistic appropriation in Johansson's work.
Freedom Suite
**300 copies** The Kollektiv für Kommunikative und Ästhetische Forschung was an artist commune that existed for about two years around 1970 in a former monastery in Mariental (Lower Saxony), West Germany, close to the then inner-German border. It was founded by members of the West Berlin free art and music scene, many of them having been part of the scene based around the short-lived Zodiak Free Arts Lab. Among the residents were drummer Sven-Åke Johansson, guitarist Norbert Eisbrenner and bassi…
Das Moabiter Duo - Recovered
In February 2020, Sven-Åke Johansson and Thomas Kapielski released the vinyl LP Recovered under their project name Das Moabiter Duo at Fantôme Verlag. It was published on the occasion of a joint exhibition by Johansson and Kapielski at the Laura Mars Gallery, Berlin.Recovered, mixed and mastered by Frieder Butzmann, features a previously unreleased concert recording from 1983. Joint performances by Kapielski and Johansson took place in clubs like the Korrekt (Alt-Moabit, Berlin) or ‒ as part o…
Schlingerland / Dynamische Schwingungen
Cien Fuegos present a reissue of Sven-Åke Johansson's Schlingerland / Dynamische Schwingungen, originally released in 1972. Sven-Åke Johansson (Mariestad, Sweden, 1943) works as a composer, drummer, accordionist, poet, and visual artist. Longtime collaborator of the free improv scene in the German '60s with Kowald, Brötzmann, Schlippenbach. He contributed to numerous exhibitions, publications, and recordings. Sven-Åke Johansson - drums. Recorded 1972 in Stockholm, Schweden. Engineered by Göran F…
Songs From Elsewhere
A meeting of generations! The mighty Johansson paired with British artist Phillips for a collection of songs from... elsewhere. Johansson's unmistakable sensibility filtered through collaboration. Another essential chapter in an unparalleled discography
Puls-Plus-Puls
Jan Jelinek and legendary jazz percussionist Sven-Åke Johansson probe ideas about the “anthropology of drumming” with entrancing results for Luxembourg’s Ni-Vu-Ni-Connu label. A sterling addition to Jelinek’s catalogue of solo releases and experimental collaborations, ‘puls-plus-puls’ finds the German artist properly indulging a formative passion for jazz music alongside one of free-jazz music’s most respected percussionists. Of course, this being Jelinek, the results are craftily complex but un…
Grau-Grün-Welk-Satt
solo set recorded at SÅJ Studio in Berlin in 2017 that reconnects with Sven-Åke Johansson’s 1972 seminal first solo record Schlingerland originally released on Fmp, presenting just the man and his drum set, and it's a fascinating listen. "You can hit beats so that they betray an intention – through accentuation or emphasis. Or you can hit them so that they seem mechanical, devoid of intention, a pure pulse, as in much minimalist music. Both possibilities abound in different genres. But there is …
Schraubenlieder
Trost present Schraubenlieder, unreleased songs by Sven-Ake Johansson and Alexander von Schlippenbach from 1988, recorded by Radio DRS Bern. Personnel: Sven-Ake Johansson - vocals; Alexander von Schlippenbach - piano.
Neuköllner Modelle (Sektion 1-2)
Sektion 1-2 is an extravagant LP-production which depicts the new musical thoughts and craftsmanships of three musician identities who couldn’t be further apart (or better distributed) in age. Together they work on the form. The result is a radical suspended shape of instrumental interplay, exploring unbound rhythms, structures, and harmonies.
Even though Neuköllner Modelle draws attention to Free Jazz (a genre of which Sven-Ake Johansson became one of the european pioneers), their methods…
Blended Box
Awesome 5xCD box featuring collective releases from the 70s to the recent years by the Swedish legendary pioneer of free jazz and improvised music. Sven-Åke Johansson (Mariestad, Sweden, 1943) is a composer, a drummer, a poet, an author and also a visual artist. Longtime collaborator of the free improv scene back in the German sixties with Peter Kowald and Peter Brötzmann, furthermore with Manfred Schoof, Schlippenbach, Rüdiger Carl and Hans Reichel. He contributed to numerous exhibitions, p…
Stockholm Connection
A unique 3CD-box from Umlaut Records putting in attention the musical collaborations between two of Sweden’s most headstrong musicians: the pioneers Bengt “Frippe” Nordström and Sven-Åke Johansson. The previously non-released music was recorded in Stockholm 1970, 1977 and 1982 and portrait the musicians both in format of a trio, including legendary pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, and in a large orchestra led by Johansson including, at the time, young groundbreaking jazz musicians from Swede…
Konzert fur 12 Traktoren
Have you ever heard a tractor orchestra? In this unusual concert, the tractor brands «Famulus», «Pionier», «Zetor» and «Belarus» are both the muses and the stars. Their engines produce a unique rhythmic piston beat. Sven-Åke Johansson has composed a concert specifically for these 1950s and 1960s tractors which is being performed for the first time here in Thuringia. In his search for suitable machines, the composer made great finds in Weimar and environs. Under his direction, twelve tractor dri…
Filme II
Different films around the work from musician and artist Sven-Ake Johansson. 'Ludwigs Besen', a portrait by Rudi Ewals (1994). 'Telefonbuchstück für zwei gelbe Seiten' (2010). 'Gesamtkatalog D' (2005 - 2008). 'Solostück für Konzertbecken' (2010). 'Grenaphon Exercises' (2006). 'Stereo für 8' (2006). 'Tüüt' (2010). 'Die neue Zeit ist pausenlos' (2008). 'Konzum'. With English subtitles. Film dokumentation by Teresa Iten. With 20 pages booklet, photos and a german/english text by Thomas Groetz.…
Adventmusik at Kippenbergers Buro (1978)
From the archives of Sven-Ake Johansson artist and musician, original recordings from 1978, five tracks centered around voice and accordion, recorded in the studios of artist Martin Kippenberger in 1978. Historical!
The 80's Selected Concerts
'Rimski' with Mats Gustafsson, tenorsax, sopranino. Wolfgang Fuchs, bass clarinet, sopranino. Sven-Ake Johansson, drums vocal. Recorded by Christian Fnghaus, (Audionauten) Berlin 6.9.1990. 'Erkelenzdamm' with Richard Teitelbaum, piano, electronics, and Sven-Ake Johansson, drums, accordeon. Rec. at Institut Unzeit, Berlin 1985. 'Splittersonata' with Günther Christmann, trombone. Wolfgang Fuchs, bass clarinet, sopranino. Sven-Ake Johansson, vocal, accordeon, percussion. Torsten Müller, double bass…