Sven-Åke Johansson (1943 - 2025)

Photo by Cristina Marx/Photomusix

By Martin Schray

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: