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Sven-Åke Johansson

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Sven-Åke Johansson was a Swedish drummer, composer, poet, writer and visual artist, born in 1943 in Mariestad. He began in dance bands and then played, among others, in ensembles around Bobo Stenson. From 1968 he lived in Berlin. There he became one of the first European free jazz drummers, as a member of the trio of the saxophonist Peter Brötzmann with the bass player Peter Kowald. That group recorded For Adolphe Sax (1967) and Machine Gun (1968). He also played in the Globe Unity Orchestra and briefly in an early form of Tangerine Dream.

Music and breakthrough

In 1972 Schlingerland came out, one of the first solo records by a free jazz drummer. From 1976 he formed a long-running duo with the pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, in which he also played accordion and recited spontaneous poems. He used unusual materials for percussion, such as foam rubber and telephone directories, and wrote pieces of his own, including Konzert für 12 Traktoren. From 2010 he worked with the singer and composer Oliver Augst on the programme Eisler im Sitzen, and later also with Jan Jelinek on modular synthesizer. He made almost forty records and wrote volumes of poetry and radio plays. He died in 2025.

Influence

Johansson shows that European free jazz left more room for humour, sound exploration and visual art than its American example. His work runs from wild improvisation to slow, almost theatrical sound plays, and made him a distinctive voice in the Berlin scene.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Schlingerland and notice how, with only drums and percussion, he builds a whole piece, without melody or fixed metre.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

Categories: Artists