Dynamic Vibrations

Sven-Åke Johansson defies categorization. Oscillating between Free Music, Swing Jazz, composition, performance, music theater, vocal art, and visual experimentation, his work inhabits a space where genres dissolve and new forms emerge. This book is the most comprehensive collection of Johansson’s compositions, realized and unrealized concepts, alongside his distinctive drawings, sketches, and textual explorations. Just as his music shifts fluidly between acoustic ready-mades, bruitism, solo works, free ensembles, jazz combos, and theatrical experiments, his writing resists fixed identities. Texts explaining compositions double as poetic structures, aphorisms transform into song lyrics, and vocal declamations spill from Instant Composing into the realm of literature. Rather than imposing a historical framework, this book presents a vivid collage of materials, arranged in thematic constellations that reflect Johansson’s own artistic logic. At once an artist’s book and a curated volume, it offers deep insight into his creative practice. A series of interviews further illuminates his singular way of thinking and speaking, providing multiple entry points into the world of one of the most unclassifiable figures in contemporary music and art.