Poet and text-sound artist Bengt Emil Johnson dead

Bengt Emil Johnson was born 1936 in Saxdalen, Dalecarlia, and was one of the pioneers of Swedish text-sound composition and electroacoustic music. He studied piano and composition for Knut Wiggen, but later become more interested in poetry. Johnson worked at Sveriges Radio (the Swedish national radio), and edited the contemporary music journal Nutida Musik for many years. He passed away on July, 14, 2010.

Johnson's text-sound compositions have been released on e.g. Text-Sound Compositions - A Stockholm Festival and The Pioneers (PSCD 63) from Phono Suecia, and some of them are available at UbuWeb. There are also some material available at konkretpoesi.se (in Danish/Swedish).

Update 2010-07-25. Some press voices (in Swedish only):

• Poesins gossen Ruda tog sig an det svåra enkla by Tommy Olofsson
• Bengt Emil Johnson till minne by Jonas Ellerström
• Blues för Bengt Emil by Ulf Lundén
• Poet full av djärvhet by Per Svensson
• Över sista gränsen by Magnus Haglund

There is also a recent dissertation (in Swedish) on Johnsons poetry: "Tro mig på min ort" : Oöversättligheten som tematiskt komplex i Bengt Emil Johnsons poesi 1973-1982 by Johan Alfredsson, published by Holzweg.