Only a drum kit stood on the wooden floorboards. Sven-Åke Johansson, as
always dressed like a gentleman (which is how he saw himself) in an
elegant three-piece suit and with his hair neatly combed back, began his
“The Cucumber Piece” with what has become standard extended percussion
playing – until he reached for two cucumbers hidden under a dish towel.
Like a merchant in a Bertolt Brecht drama, he weighed them in his hands and
gently slid them over the drumhead. Then he gently struck both cymbals,
which trembled softly and reverently. There are many excellent drummers in
the improvised music scene, but there was only one Sven-Åke Johansson. Now
the great sound explorer, percussionist, avant-gardist and personified
all-round artist has died somewhat unexpectedly.
Born in Mariestad, Sweden, in 1943, Johansson began as a drummer in dance
bands, but turned to jazz early on and played in groups around Bobo Stenson
from 1965 onwards, as well as with the American pianist Ran Blake in Spain
and France. Above all, however, he quickly established contacts with the
rapidly developing German free jazz scene. Johansson was involved in the
first recording of the Globe Unity Orchestra and in 1967 he became a member
of Peter Brötzmann’s trio with Peter Kowald, with whom he recorded For
Adolphe Sax and later he also played in the saxophonist’s octet on the
seminal Machine Gun. In 1968, he moved to Berlin and was involved in the
development of the European version of free jazz and free improvisational
music with all the alpha dogs there: Peter Brötzmann, Peter Kowald, Manfred
Schoof, and Alexander von Schlippenbach. With the latter he often played in
a duo, a project that lasted for a very long time. Additionally, Johansson
played the accordion and recited spontaneous poetry. He was among the first
percussionists who used extended materials for percussive effects. In the
1980s he was part of the Bergisch-Brandenburgische Quartett (BBQ) with
Ernst Ludwig Petrowsky, Hans Reichel, and Rüdiger Carl. Carl Reichel,
Wolfgang Fuchs, Radu Malfatti, Maarten Altena, and Norbert Eisbrenner,
among others, were members of his Northern European Melody and
Improvisation Orchestra. With Ulrich Gumpert and Axel Dörner and lots of
other musicians he played in his Ol’ Man Rebop Ensemble.
However, it would be far too simplistic to reduce Johansson to his work as
a free jazz drummer. He was much more interested in sound in general,
calling what he explored and performed with insatiable curiosity “new new
music.” To this end, he sprinkled peas on the drums and banged cardboard, he
demonstrated the graininess of sandpaper and its ability to crunch, he
drummed his way through the world on telephone directories and sang some of
his beautiful, intricate and quirky songs with his own unique accent to the
accordion strapped on backwards. He showed everyone who loves or hates
ordinary drum solos that the most exciting sounds are not the ones which
are played, it’s the ones that are left out, the ones we have to create
ourselves. His 1996 concert for twelve tractors in Leipzig, which was
performed again in 2013 at Klangspuren in Schwaz/Austria, is legendary.
Together with Alexander von Schlippenbach, he initiated “Über Ursache und
Wirkung der Meinungsverschiedenheiten beim Turmbau zu Babel” (On the Cause
and Effect of Disagreements in the Tower of Babel), and he also created
musical productions such as “Die Harke und der Spaten” (The Rake and the
Spade). He has composed pieces for wind turbines, for cardboard boxes, and
one of his compositions from 2020 is entitled “Komposition für 10 + 1
Eierschneider” (Composition for 10 + 1 Egg Cutters). He gave precise
instructions on how to pluck them or play them with a plectrum while
placing them on a wooden box open at the front. Together with Jan Jelinek,
a musician and producer of electronic music, he had a duo that symbolized
the successful connection between the old free jazz school and a new
generation of electronic and noise musicians. As a total concept artist,
Johansson tried to steer the audience’s perception in a certain direction
using various means, only to then confront them with an unexpected twist in
the musical or visual events. The fact that his performances always radiate
into the visual realm is part of his concept. One could go on and on about
him and his art. Apart from all the things mentioned he was also a
photographer, a designer and a label owner (SAJ).
Sven-Åke Johansson’s oeuvre is full of outstanding music, music that has
helped to define improvised music in the last 60 years. The above-mentioned
For Adolphe Sax (BRÖ / FMP 1967) and
Machine Gun
(BRÖ 1968 / FMP 1972) belong to the European free jazz canon. His duo
recordings with Alexander von Schlippenbach on FMP are superb: If you ask me
I would choose Live at The Quartier Latin (1976), Kung Bore (1978), Drive
(1981) and most of all Live 1976/77 (2001). His duo with
saxophonist/clarinetist/accordionist Rüdiger Carl shows a different musical
side of him,“Intermezzo für zwei Akkordeons“ on Fünfundreissigvierzig (FMP,
1986) is folk music in a weird and wonderful sense. With Schlippenbach,
Carl and Jay Oliver on bass he recorded jazz classics, another one of his
unexpected interests. Night and Day (FMP, 1985) is pure joy and a bow to the
classics of the genre. A lesser known album is E.M.T.’s Canadian Cup Of
Coffee (FMP/SAJ, 1974) with Alfred Harth on saxophones and clarinets and
Nicole van den Plaas on piano, a very beautiful and humorous recording. The
Bergisch-Brandenburgisches Quartet with Hans Reichel, Rüdiger Carl and Ernst
Ludwig Petrowsky Free Postmodernism – BBQ with Fred Frith – USA, 1982 (SAJ, 2020) was only released a few years ago, but especially this album is
a great discovery from the wild and outer fringes of free jazz at the
beginning of the 1980s. Of his newer releases,
Stumps (Ni-Vu-Ni-Connu, 2022) with Pierre Borel on sax, Axel Dörner on trumpet,
Joel Grip on bass, and Simon Sieger on piano is worth being mentioned. For
each track the “Stumps“ theme is repeated four times, forward then backward,
a typical Johansson idea. Also,
Rotations
(Trost, 2025), his trio with Ignaz Schick (turntables) and Franz Hautzinger
(trumpet) is a nice summary of Johansson’s interest in sound exploration.
Finally, I’ve always liked his collaboration with Jan Jelinek, maybe because
it’s very unusual for the man’s music (then again, the word “unusual“ does
not really fit for Johansson’s art). Puls-Plus-Puls Edition Moers (Moers
Record Store Schallplatten, 2021) is my favorite of the two albums they
released.
With Sven-Åke Johansson, improvised music loses a consistent and distinctive
voice that has significantly expanded the understanding of sound, form, and
artistic expression over decades. It’s hard to imagine the musical world
without him.
Watch the short and very insightful documentary with Johansson and the two
Danish improvisers August Rosenbaum and Lars Greve: