About me
Little did I know in 1982, as a newly graduated jazzguitar nerd, that more than 40 years later I would be mainly folk and world musician with flatback bouzouki and guitar as my main occupation, and that this had taken me to so many places around the world.
That this happened is because I cant resist letting curiosity and coincidences rule, rather than clear career goals and plans for my playing.
I started playing guitar when I was 10 years old and inspiration was the 60’s pop and rock music which eventually led me into the alternative (progg) scene as an electric guitarist.
The interest in improvisation and instrumental music made me seek out jazz and that’s when everything became more serious. Moved from Uppsala where I grew up and moved south to Skåne to study music. I studied at Fridhem’s music school and later the Malmö Academy of Music where I met fantastic musicians/teachers such as Sten Ingelf and Helge Albin and guest musicians such as Nisse Landgren, Palle Mikkelborg and not least Don Cherry.
“Stevie Wonder is my absolute favourite musician” said jazz icon Don Cherry and it changed my way of looking at music, that it’s about where the groove is, the desire to create something new, the listening and not striving for other people’s expectations in a particular genre.
Since my time in Uppsala, I had a collaboration with the pianist Stefan Sory and through him around 1984 I was asked by a West African band in Malmö, Afro Tiambo, to join as guitarist.
Even though I didn’t know anything about that music at all, I said yes and a whole new way of working with music opened up. Again, it was the dance, the groove and the joy that was in focus and being so distinctly ear-based. In addition to the fact that there have always been influences from West Africa in my playing since then, it also led to several trips to Guinea, Senegal, Cape Verde and Gambia and collaborations with musicians such as Alagi MBye, Ayi Solomon, Willie MBuende and now most recently with singer Teta Diana from Rwanda.
There, in the mid-80s, I also got in touch with Swedish folk musicians from Filarfolket who invited me into folk music projects and which eventually led to a 20-year collaboration with Avadå Band, the band that really led me into the folk scene. An endless number of gigs, school projects, composing, theater projects and workshops all characterized by folk and world music. I also found new instruments to express myself, such as flatback bouzouki and mandola.
Ever since I started playing professionally in the early 80’s, teaching has been a big part of part of my musician identity.
I worked as an ensemble/guitar teacher at Skurup music school and Malmö Academy of Music (1987-2022) where I`ve been testing my ideas about learning by ear, groove, that all music has the same actual origin regardless of genre.
It was also through teaching that I in the early 2000s ended up at the Folk Music Conservatory in Odense where I met Kristine Heebøll, one of Denmark’s finest violin and folk musicians, who invited me to join her solo project (CD) Trio Mio 2004.
The Trio Mio collaboration created further contacts with the Danish folk/world scene in groups such as Færd, Ulvsand-Hjetland, Kryss and Himmerland. At times there has been intensive touring in Denmark and Sweden, the Faroe Islands, Shetland, Russia, Ukraine, Scotland, USA, Chile, New Zealand and Australia
All this has become the musician I am today, because Trio Mio and Himmerland still exist and with many releases in the luggage, at least 1000 gigs, choir collaborations and workshops in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Holland and Canada, I continue on the chosen path of playing folk and world music on flatback-bouzouki and guitar with the desire, groove and dance as main tools.
Trio Mio, with Kristine Heebøll, Jens Ulvsand and Peter Rosendal. Visit www.triomio.dk for more information.