Sven-Åke Johansson, born in 1943 in Mariestad (Sweden), is one of the style-defining drummers of the German free jazz era of the 60s and 70s. From the 80s onwards, he pursued an artistic path largely independent of institutions and groups as a music performer in the circles of fine arts and new music. Among other things, more than fifty record releases, a number of music theater pieces, radio plays, pictorial works and a lively touring life are among his oeuvre.

"It’s hard to know where to begin with percussionist and polymath Sven-Åke Johansson: Is he a bebopdrummer? A visual artist? A Fluxus-style madman? Actually he’s all of the above and more, and over the decades he’s never confined himself to any single approach or discipline. Like many early exponents of European free jazz–he appears on key recordings by Peter Brötzmann, Manfred Schoof, and the Globe Unity Orchestra, among others–Johansson is rooted in bebop, and he’s continued to carry the torch in bands with adventurous musicians half his age." – Peter Margasak