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Interview: Uppsala Fria, August 20th, 2009.
Text by Cecilia Irefalk. Translated and published with permission.
Translation proof-read by Rec and Katti.
From sound terror to sound art
The music maker Johan Hjort wanted to show off the diversity of the Uppsala music scene. In June, 2009, he released the compilation 018: Experimental on his own label, deersound. An album where a motley crew of local artists in sound express their thoughts about Uppsala, their city.
1983 is tattooed in black on h:'s chest. A mark of his age. At 25, h: also known as Hjorten or Reversed Obesity or Johan Hjort, which is his given name, has already released about ten full length albums and as many EP's on his own label deersound. In addition to that are live gigs, sound/video installations and collaborations with musicians both from Sweden and other countries.
On June 13th, the album 018: Experimental was released. A compilation of contributions from a considerable number of local musicians, composers and producers. All with the one thing in common of working and living in Uppsala.
- My idea with the album was to show that there are a lot of great and different music makers who don't get the recognition they deserve.
He's right on time at the meeting place we've set: the controversial "Näckens polska" by Bror Hjorth, the statue that - not soon enough according to many, sadly according to others - is back on its place in front of the train station after renovations.
Johan Hjort says that it took a while after he got the idea for the album to actually make it happen.
- It was already in my mind in 2007, but it wasn't until fall of 2008 when I received a grant from Musikens Hus Vänner for 10 000 SEK that it picked up. This spring, I spent about two to three hours a day on it, he says. I'm happy and proud that I've done this even though it has been a lot of work.
018: Experimental, which is limited to 500 copies, knows no boundries. Noise, minimal and dark ambient is shamelessly mixed with chiptunes, instrumental hiphop, spoken word and jazzy electronica. There hasn't been a word about the release in the local media, something that Johan Hjort thinks is sad, but maybe that just proves its point that the local often is shadowed.
The Uppsala director and poet Dag Thelander states in the album outro that "Uppsala must be destroyed". With a prophetic, almost atonal voice he chants that "one has to start by the station and make sure no one gets away. And when the commute no longer leaves at nine past you have to tear the paving stones on the pedestrian street up and throw them through the display-windows and on accordion players, hotdog sellers and chirpy teenagers from Doctors Without Borders. Everything must be destroyed.".
Johan Hjort smiles when the text is mentioned.
- I have a love-hate relationship with Uppsala. When I read Dag's text I felt that it summarized exactly what I feel about the city, he says and adds: But I think that it's a good music town. There's a wide spectrum of musicians who create everything from minimalistic music to death metal. But of course they aren't as noticed as those in Stockholm.
He points out that Musikens hus or Uppsala Konsert och Kongress, which isn't as easily pronounced, has meant a lot for the city's music scene.
"At first I was critical of the construction and thought that what they call fine culture would be the only thing made room for. But that's not what it's become. It's great that the ambition is that it's gonna as diverse as possible, with everything from black metal bands to Oslo Symphony Orchestra1."
Even the more experimental music genres have been given a scene at Musikens hus. Though overall, Hjorten thinks that Sweden's experimental scene is good, especially the noise scene.
"There are plenty of Swedish noise makers who are very popular abroad. Scandinavian noise differs from American noise. While the American noise artists often jam in their studio and record everything right of the bat, people here have more of a structure.
Hjorten himself started making noise in 2006.
"I sampled a lot of sounds then. Now I record almost all of my sounds myself," he says, and adds that in the beginning he had a hard time leaving home without his Edirol digital recorder, so that he wouldn't miss any usable sounds.
And there are almost no sounds that he doesn't like. His favorite sound is a creak.
"Creak is often very nice, doors that creak and where the creak sustains. When you grind a skateboard it sounds nice. It's a sound I'd like to use, but I've never managed to get a good recording, he says.
"Sounds are wonderful. It's actually only children screams that I have a hard time with. I can handle piercing feedback but not when children scream. Although I have neighbors with children and a daycare 50 meters from where I live so I'm thinking about recording them on the sly.
Asking those who have worked with or somehow come in contact with Johan Hjort as a musician, you'll get opinions such as "productive", "extremely energetic", and one who " gets things done", though he wouldn't choose to describe himself that way.
I'm an incredibly lazy person. I can be lying down watching TV and want to change the channel, and instead of reaching for the remote with my hand, I'll put a lot of energy into finding another way and trying to grab something to reach it with.
But during the entire conversation he more or less mentions thought through ideas he would like to do in the future.
I get ideas all the time but never write them down. They still lie in my mind anyway. One idea that I might use is do five minute recordings on every cafe in Uppsala and then cut it together. I can't help but to eavesdrop on conversations around me. It's incredible that people talk openly about anything without thinking that they might be recorded.
In 2006, after listening to the album echo, a reviewer on UNT wrote that Hjorten's music has to come from hell. "His experimenting with noise and beeps can make any quiescent soul into a shivering nervous wreck. But if you just turn the volume down and close your eyes, it suddenly becomes fascinating and the noise turns into something that at least aliens would call music", the journalist summarized with a witty lash. An opinion like that must be a superb compliment for someone who works to break existing norms and frames within music.
The same year as echo, Ljudterrorism, an album composed with only three walkie-talkies, was released. The third track, Ointressant rymdresa, is a reaction to astronaut Christer Fuglesang's first spaceflight, and the media coverage regarding it. Despite the albums title Hjorten doesn't see himself as a sound terrorist, rather a freedom fighter of sounds.
Earlier I was probably a sound terrorist, now I prefer calling myself a sound artist and then it's up to others what they think, he says and shrugs.
1. This is an error made by me. Oslo Symphony Orchestra have not played at Uppsala Konsert och kongress, Oslo Philharmonic Orchesta have - which is who I meant to say but got them mixed up.