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Gothenburg-based Swedish producer
Johan Agebjörn works in a range of electronic genres, from electro-disco and house to ambient new age, but always grounds his approach in a deep appreciation for the roots and history of electronic music. He is best known as the songwriter and producer behind the anonymous synth pop chanteuse
Sally Shapiro, whose acclaimed 2006 LP,
Disco Romance, was a deliberate throwback to the Italo-disco of the early '80s -- but before the beginning of their collaboration,
Agebjörn had been largely focused on ambient electro productions inspired by fellow Scandinavians like
Krister Linder and
Biosphere. He continued working in this vein with solo releases like 2011's
The Mountain Lake, and veered between ambient trance and space disco on albums such as 2021's
Artefact (with
Mikael Ögren).
Following the success of the
Sally Shapiro project and the inclusion of the Italo-inspired track "Spacer Woman from Mars" (credited to
Johan Agebjörn featuring
Sally Shapiro) on Lo Recordings' 2007 compilation Milky Disco,
Agebjörn's long-in-the-works debut album as a solo artist was finally released on the ambient label Lotuspike in 2008, and titled
Mossebo after his home and studio.
Agebjörn, a father and library student, also self-released a floppy-disc single ("Too Much Time and Too Many Toys") and a CD of piano compositions (
Music with Less Electricity) on his own Husmus label, and contributed remixes for the artists
NeonCoil, Halftone,
Don Juan Dracula,
Souvenir, and
Lindstrøm.
Agebjörn also continued working on the
Sally Shapiro project, whose second album,
My Guilty Pleasure, was released in 2009.
He then followed up his solo debut with two albums in 2011, an ambient collection titled
The Mountain Lake and the far more dancefloor-friendly
Casablanca Nights, which featured appearances by
Sally Shapiro,
Wolfram,
Ercola, and
Lake Heartbeat. Remixes and working on
Sally Shapiro's 2013 album, Somewhere Else, kept
Agebjörn busy over the next few years. His fifth solo album was based around the electric piano sound of the Casio MT-52 and was a blend of his interests in electronic dance music and new age. Notes was released in early 2015 and featured appearances by
Sally Shapiro,
Young Galaxy, and
Loney Dear. In 2016, the
Sally Shapiro duo announced that they were parting ways; their final release was the bittersweet single "If You Ever Wanna Change Your Mind." The following year, Spotted Peccary released the cinematic
We Never Came to the White Sea, a collaboration between
Agebjörn and
Mikael Ögren. The two released
Artefact, a space exploration-themed release inspired by
Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama, in 2021. ~ K. Ross Hoffman