Biography, Per Boysen, Sweden
“I play music that is open, improvising, breathtaking
and sometimes a complete failure!”
Swedish multi instrumentalist Per Boysen is a crossover crusader
that loves music and hates genres. Enthusiastic listeners have hinted at
“Nu-Jazz”, "Progressive Rock" or “Minimal”
while others refer to "Sound Art". On stage Per plays the Alto
Traverse Flute, the Tenor Sax, the Chapman Stick, the Fretless Electric
Sustaniac Guitar and the Electric Wind Instrument. Plus his special meta
instrument; the live looping laptop to play interactive electronics by foot
control pedals.
"Among the many festival highlights was Swedish guitar/flute/wood-wind
player Per Boysen's Jon Hassell-like soundscapes". - Guitar
Player Magazine June 7/2007 reviewing Santa Cruz International Live Looping
Festival.
"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." - Swedish daily newspaper Smålandsposten,
May 26 2008.
 “Multi
lateral improvisation”
In jazz it is common that one musician improvises lead themes over a
fixed chord structure background played by other musicians. In my music
the same musician, or musicians, typically improvises both the lead themes
and the chord structures at the same time. This multi lateral improvisation
is made possible by advanced live-looping techniques. It is a very simple
and intuitive way of creating music. - Per Boysen.
Playing the music rather than the background - and vice versa...
I think “playing the music rather than the background”, as Ornette Coleman
once put it, is one side of what I’m doing. The other side is that in a
certain sense I’m “exclusively playing backgrounds”. Whatever way the listener
choses to interpret my music, there will always be some empty part of the
screen to be filled in by the listening mind’s imagination. In my opinion
this psychologic aspect of participation is a key element in “psychedelic”
or “open” music. What happens is that these elements manifest as specific
“virtual melodies” in the mind of the listener. And amazingly these seemingly
imaginary virtual melodies respond directly to the directions, transitions
and gestures that I use as my musical mind maps when I improvise my music
in the first place. Even though I carefully leave them out, by not explicitly
playing them, these undercurrents live on as the foundation that glues it
all together. - Per Boysen
Per Boysen has performed many live-looping shows in USA, Sweden, Switzerland
and Italy, 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 2006  gave
him a budget big enough for assembling a temporary quartet, the Boysen Network
Ensemble, to improvise a micro opera with amplified painting canvas percussionist
and musicians clamped with cameras projecting over a big screen by the stage.
He has also composed and produced recordings of surround soundtrack music
for films in the DVD format.
The Swedish Art Grants Committee helped financing a few of Per’s projects.
One such, particularly successful, event was the 1st Swedish Looping Tour
2003, that received media coverage by the national public service television’s
art documentary Musikspegeln while for the international audience by The
Music Room of CNN. For this tour he invited Brasilian/Swiss guitarist Matthias
Grob, inventor of the legendary Digital Echoplex Pro looping machine, and
American looping percussionist Rick Walker. This open-stage concept tour
was repeated in 2008 and then expanded to Norway and Finland.
As a consulting musician Per Boysen is also working with a row of software
developers to help out in the creation of tomorrows musical instruments.
Besides playing music he has also written expert studies for WIPO in Geneva,
the Nordic Musician Union and The Swedish National Council for Cultural
Affairs. (Kulturrådet: "Omvärldsanalys").
 Other
works including books in Swedish on the music business as well as being
a freelance journalist, editor and columnist for Scandinavia’s biggest guitar
and computer music studio magazines.
Per Boysen is also frequently booked as a speaker, trainer and consultant
regarding Apple Logic, Ableton Live and assorted live-looping techniques.
Former credits include international major label releases with extremely
visual punk-electronic dance-pop band Plastico (artist) as well as Swedish
gold seller Peter LeMarc (studio musician). Per Boysen has also appeared
in art performances directed by Swedish multi artist Dan Fröberg (Stockholm
Art Show, “Nya Gärdesfestivalen” etc).
Many other credits not mentioned here but who cares?
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