Johansen, Sverre Knut

Artist: Sverre Knut Johansen & Robert Rich
P: 2019
Sverre Knut Johansen turns back the clock, peering into the distant past on his fourth Spotted Peccary release, PRECAMBRIAN. Focusing his conceptual musical lens on the prehistoric development of planet Earth and its inhabitants, Johansen is joined by noted electronic music maestro and soundscape pioneer Robert Rich to create a deeply compelling ambient-electronic odyssey that serves as a virtual soundseeing tour through our planet’s vivid history.

Each track on PRECAMBRIAN takes the listener through significant geological periods and evolutionary events of Earth’s 4.6 billion year history, bringing the epochs and eons to life through musical poetry and recorded natural sounds. The sonic landscapes, both organic and electronic, are always deep and captivating, evolving through abstract amorphous spaces, peaceful harmonious moods, and dramatic eventful moments.

Artist: Sverre Knut Johansen
P: 2020
Dreams Beyond, Sverre Knut Johansen's fifth offering on the Spotted Peccary label, is a wondrous adventure through musical visions and sonic dreamscapes. Inspired by the album's striking and surreal cover artwork (created by Michał Karcz), Johansen reveals a beguiling collection of compositions infused with imagination and beauty. Guiding the listener on a fascinating voyage, the album's nine tracks travel through quiet spaces and mysterious realms, frequently propelled by dynamic rhythms that build to powerfully dramatic moments.
Using his collection of synths, electronic percussion, electric guitars, and sound design software, Johansen infuses the tracks with a creativity that satisfies the ears and sparks the imagination, weaving melody, rhythm, and texture into a captivating musical tapestry that constantly evolves from beginning to end. Inspired and sincere, Dreams Beyond is bestowed with passion and warmth. It is a thoroughly enjoyable exploration that invites us to follow our dreams into the unknown and beyond, seeking – and discovering – a peaceful paradise of long days and beautiful landscapes, safe from danger, and hidden from the outside world.

Artist: Sverre Knut Johansen
P: 2016
Earth From Above, Sverre Knut Johansen’s first release on Spotted Peccary Music, introduces a rich, fresh approach to the symphonic-electronic style of orchestrated composition, immediately evoking a soaring perspective of unusual terrestrial landscapes from high above the skies, all illuminated through melodic compositions, at times austere, and always a sound experience filled with emotional, poetic content. This refined approach builds on lush atmospheres, rhythmic elements, melodic structures, and dense layers of endless floating sounds and effects to create dramatic, dreamy landscapes and meaningful enticing journeys. Sverre Knut Johansen – along with featured Spotted Peccary guest artist David Helpling, who contributes emotive guitar textures and tonalities throughout the project – combines a selective array of electronic instruments, guitar samples, synthesizer pads and elements, as well as a diverse menu of rhythmic components and percussive sounds to define his visceral orchestra. This ensemble dances, illuminates, and pulsates as though conducted from the Northern Lights that fill the sky above the composer’s home. But it is Sverre Knut Johansen’s melodic sensibilities that gives this exciting music its focus and purpose, and his attention to detail and dedication to quality production that delivers such an elegant experience.

Artist: Sverre Knut Johansen
P: 2022
Metahuman, Sverre Knut Johansen’s sixth album for Spotted Peccary, is about looking beyond the arbitrary constructs of ordinary life towards a higher consciousness. Inspired by the Deepak Chopra book of the same name, Metahuman is the search for the best version of oneself, a posing of the question: what are we capable of without the conditional mind?  Johansen renders this reflection in his diverse sonic palette as he traverses the rhythmic and the spacious, the symphonic and the solitary—ever-anchored by a keen sense of melody. He often compares composing to painting, and this compositional philosophy is evident on Metahuman. He adds layer after layer to the canvas, sometimes Berlin School sequences, sometimes a post-rock drumline, until a landscape is wrought from overlapping shades. Stunning and elegiac, “Human (Path of Destruction)” begins with a wistful arpeggiator rising through a subtle texture. As the piece progresses, tension swells to apocalyptic heights. Mourning drones recall Hans Zimmer’s work, the wistful arpeggiator twisting through an expanse of yearning, mourning all that could have been. Percussion carries the piece to swirling crescendo—then detonates like shattering waves. Contrarily, “Metahuman” is calm and pensive. A subtle, trip-hop-esque beat pulses behind a stunning Haken Continuum performance from Ståle Storløkken. “Fluctuations of Awareness,” has the essence of the cosmic; distorted warbles cut through steely atmospherics like blips on a radar screen. Like its title suggests, “Fluctuations” never stays in one place for long; a helicopter-like loop thunders through its midsection before dissolving under ethereal waves. Fellow Spotted Peccary artist David Helpling lends shimmering guitar to closer “Infinity Being,” the journey ending in a place of peace.
At times yearning and visually imaginative, at times rhythmic and propulsive, Metahuman’s nine layered sonic topologies present a master electronic composer at his best.