Leif Elggren
Encyclopedia
Leif Elggren is a Swedish artist who lives and works in Stockholm
.
Active since the late 1970s, Leif Elggren has become one of the most constantly surprising conceptual artists to work in the combined worlds of audio and visual. A writer, visual artist, stage performer and composer, he has many albums to his credits, solo and with the Sons of God, on labels such as Ash International
, Touch
, Radium and his own Firework Edition. His music, often conceived as the soundtrack to a visual installation or experimental stage performance, usually presents carefully selected sound sources over a long stretch of time and can range from mesmerizingly quiet electronics to harsh noise. His wide-ranging and prolific body of art often involves dreams and subtle absurdities, social hierarchies turned upside-down, hidden actions and events taking on the quality of icons.
Together with artist Carl Michael von Hausswolff
, he is a founder of the Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland (KREV) where he enjoys the title of king.
In 1988 he formed the duo Guds Söner (The Sons of God) with Kent Tankred, whom he had met four years earlier. The duo excels in creating long, puzzling stage performances that give equal roles to physical action (or inaction) and soundtrack (live or taped) with themes such as violence, love, the quotidian, food and royalty.
Elggren released his first 7" records in 1982 and 1984 on Hausswolff's label Radium. A first solo LP, Flown Over by an Old King, came out in 1988. The inception of Firework Edition in 1996 allowed Elggren to release more of his music and the growing popularity of installation art in avant-garde music circles (thanks to its ties with experimental electronica) has given his work more international exposure since the late ‘90s. Other key solo works include Talking to a Dead Queen (1996) and Pluralis Majestatis (2000).
Together with Hausswolff, Elggren curated the Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2001.
In 2007 he appeared (with John Duncan
) at the Netmage
festival in Bologna
organized by xing and executed "Something Like Seeing in the Dark".
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
.
Active since the late 1970s, Leif Elggren has become one of the most constantly surprising conceptual artists to work in the combined worlds of audio and visual. A writer, visual artist, stage performer and composer, he has many albums to his credits, solo and with the Sons of God, on labels such as Ash International
Ash International
Ash International is a British record company and audio-visual organisation started in 1993 by Mike Harding and Robin Rimbaud. In 1995 Robin Rimbaud left to pursue his music group Scanner full time. Ash International is part of the Touch organisation, founded by Jon Wozencroft in 1981...
, Touch
Touch Music
Touch is a British audio-visual organisation, operating the Touch label. It is the main arm of the London-based multimedia publishing company Touch, established in 1982...
, Radium and his own Firework Edition. His music, often conceived as the soundtrack to a visual installation or experimental stage performance, usually presents carefully selected sound sources over a long stretch of time and can range from mesmerizingly quiet electronics to harsh noise. His wide-ranging and prolific body of art often involves dreams and subtle absurdities, social hierarchies turned upside-down, hidden actions and events taking on the quality of icons.
Together with artist Carl Michael von Hausswolff
Carl Michael von Hausswolff
Carl Michael von Hausswolff is a composer, visual artist and curator based in Stockholm, Sweden. His main tools are recording devices used in an ongoing investigation of electricity, frequency, architectural space and paranormal electronic interference...
, he is a founder of the Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland (KREV) where he enjoys the title of king.
History
Elggren spent five years at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, specializing in drawing, design and bookprinting. In the late ‘70s he began to associate with performance groups, meeting people like Hausswolff and Thomas Liljenberg. With the latter he formed Firework in 1978, a duo that put up exhibitions and performances. Around the same time he purchased a press and started to publish art books. In 1982 he founded Firework Edition, a small publishing company, together with Liljenberg.In 1988 he formed the duo Guds Söner (The Sons of God) with Kent Tankred, whom he had met four years earlier. The duo excels in creating long, puzzling stage performances that give equal roles to physical action (or inaction) and soundtrack (live or taped) with themes such as violence, love, the quotidian, food and royalty.
Elggren released his first 7" records in 1982 and 1984 on Hausswolff's label Radium. A first solo LP, Flown Over by an Old King, came out in 1988. The inception of Firework Edition in 1996 allowed Elggren to release more of his music and the growing popularity of installation art in avant-garde music circles (thanks to its ties with experimental electronica) has given his work more international exposure since the late ‘90s. Other key solo works include Talking to a Dead Queen (1996) and Pluralis Majestatis (2000).
Together with Hausswolff, Elggren curated the Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2001.
In 2007 he appeared (with John Duncan
John Duncan (artist)
This page is about John Duncan the contemporary artist. For the Symbolist artist see John Duncan .John Duncan is an artist who has lived and worked in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Amsterdam, currently lives and works in Bologna...
) at the Netmage
Netmage
Netmage is an international festival dedicated to electronic art curated by Xing and produced annually—in the city of Bologna -- as a multidisciplinary program of works, investigating and promoting contemporary audiovisual research.The two major event are netmage and F.I.S.Co...
festival in Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
organized by xing and executed "Something Like Seeing in the Dark".
Selected discography
- Flown Over by an Old King (Radium 226.05, 1988)
- Talking to a Dead Queen (Fylkingen, 1996)
- Pluralis Majestatis (Firework Edition, 2000)
- 9.11 (Desperation Is the Mother of Laughter) (Firework Edition, 2000) with Thomas Liljenberg
- UGN/MAT (2000) with Per Jonsson and Kent Tankred
- Two Thin Eating One Fat (Firework Edition, 2000) with Thomas Liljenberg
- Triangles (Moikai, 2001) with Kevin DrummKevin Drumm-Biography:Emerging from the city's improvised music scene, in the 1990s he became one of the world's pre-eminent prepared guitar players. Since then his work has expanded to include electroacoustic compositions and live electronic music made with laptop computers and analog modular synthesizers...
- Extraction (2002)
- DEG (Firework Edition, 2002) with Mats GustafssonMats GustafssonMats Olof Gustafsson is a Swedish saxophone player and a stalwart on the Scandinavian free jazz scene. He is known for his tonal belligerence and intensity when improvising....
and Kevin DrummKevin Drumm-Biography:Emerging from the city's improvised music scene, in the 1990s he became one of the world's pre-eminent prepared guitar players. Since then his work has expanded to include electroacoustic compositions and live electronic music made with laptop computers and analog modular synthesizers... - The Cobblestone Is the Weapon of the Proletariat (Firework Edition, 2004)
- Gottesdienst (iDEAL, 2006)
Compilation appearances
- Emre (Dark Matter)Emre (Dark Matter)Emre is a compilation album released on CD in a regular and limited edition version. The limited edition version was limited to a pressing of 500, in heavy card slipcase with a second booklet....
(2000) - suRRism-Phonoethics sPE_0100: Peak the Source Vol.3 (2011), Surrism-PhonoethicsSurrism-PhonoethicsSurrism-Phonoethics is a Frankfurt, Germany based non-profit netlabel specializing in Experimental music. Some of their releases could be classified as Electronic art music/Electronic music, industrial or experimental music with sub-genres like Electro-Acoustic, Improvisation & Cut-Up.Their...
Interviews
- interview from Bananafish #16
- interview from Dusted (2004)
- interview from Perfect Sound Forever (2005)