Born: November 15, 1955 Primary Instrument: Electronics
Swedish multi instrumentalist and “electronician” Per Boysen is a crossover crusader that loves music, but not genres. Enthusiastic listeners have hinted at “EAM”, “Nu-Jazz”, “Psychedelic” or “Minimal” while some refer to “Sound Art”. On stage Per plays interactive electronics driven by an acoustic/mechanic/electric instrument. The palette spans the Alto Traverse Flute, the Tenor Sax, the Fretless Guitar, the Chapman Stick, Stick Guitar or the EWI (Electric Wind Instrument). Everything interconnected as a self designed meta instrument.
Per Boysen has performed many live-looping shows around Europe and the US, both as a solo performer and with ensembles. He is fond of multi media based collaborations, as for example when the Italian Festival Internazionale di Andria Castel dei Mondi provided the budget for assembling the temporary quartet Boysen Network Ensemble in order to to make a micro opera with amplified painting canvas percussionist and musicians clamped with cameras projecting on big screens. He is also active as a media music composer, having produced recordings of surround music, mixed records for bands and creative remixing for special record label releases.
The Erdem Helvacıoğlu and Per Boysen Duo got together in 2010 and recorded the album Sub City in a cinematic vibe of a dark and chilled sci-fi horror soundtrack. The album received good reviews and the duo was asked to perform it live in octaphonic surround audio, beginning with the prestigious festival Présences Électronique 2011 in Paris, Borusan Music House in Instanbul and the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam. When performing this instrumental opera and underwater epos both musicians play a row of electronic processing in parallel with their physical instruments; the TogaMan guitarviol for Erdem and the Chapman Stick for Per. Bold improvisation meets precise sound design. The musical ambition is to bring the audience deep down to share the experience of the citizens inclosed for generations inside an ecological city experiment that got stranded at the bottom of the ocean.
Awards:
The Swedish Art Grants Committee helped financing a few of Per Boysen’s projects. Among the particularly successful events were the 1st Swedish Looping Tour and the 2nd Swedish Looping Tour, receiveing media coverage by the national public service television’s art documentary Musikspegeln while for the international audience by The Music Room of CNN. Boysen invited Brasilian/Swiss guitarist Matthias Grob, inventor of the legendary Digital Echoplex Pro looping machine, and American looping percussionist Rick Walker. This open-stage tour concept was expanded to Norway and Finland as well.“Per Boysen’s live looped ambience music with layers over layers of sax- and flute melodies was a real experience, and it was obvious that he is utilizing the electronics as his personal expression without being a slave to the technology.” (Smålandsposten, Sweden)
“Turkey’s Helvacioglu (electric guitar, GuitarViol) and Sweden’s Boysen (flute, sax, EWI, fretless and dropped-B electrics) masterfully employ looping and sophisticated electronics to craft uncommonly deep, intelligent, and beautiful cinematic compositions at times reminiscent of Stockhausen, Hassell, Eno, NIN, and Floyd, but brilliantly transcending those and their many other influences.” (Guitar Player Magazine, USA)
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Primary Instrument:
Electronics
Location:
Stockholm
Willing to teach:
Advanced students only.
Credentials/Background:
Freelance teaching on the topics:
- Instant composition with interactive electronics.
- Live Looping.
- Performance software as Ableton Live, Apple Mainstage and Plogue Bidule.
- Music production with Apple Logic. Mixing, mastering.
Clinic/Workshop Information:
Multi Lateral Improvisation as in Instant Composing. Electronics extension of
string and wind instruments. Live sound design strategies.
