Once voted “the most beautiful man in the world”, Swedish singer/songwriter Jay-Jay Johanson started composing already as a teenager, but it wasn’t until August 1996 he was to release his first album “Whiskey”. The instant success of this debut album, characterized by its jazzy vocals over trippy, film noir arrangements, took Jay-Jay out on his first of many world tours. After “Whiskey” with its unforgettable songs like “It Hurts Me So” and “So Tell The Girls That I Am Back In Town”, Johanson released “Tattoo” in 1998. The first step in his music’s evolution into a more richly textured, poetic ambience, as we can hear in the haunting “Milan Madrid Chicago Paris”, “Even In The Darkest Hour” and “She’s Mine But I’m Not Hers”. Released in April 2000, “Poison” went straight into the French chart at number four. Darker more depressive themes were presented, and frustration was sometimes heard in Jay-Jay’s voice. The album featured contributions from Cocteau Twins founder and guitarist Robin Guthrie. The same year Johanson also composed the soundtrack to the film “La Confusion Des Genres”, made by French director Ilan Cohen, and in 2001, Jay-Jay Johanson emerged with “Cosmodrome”, a sound-and-image installation first exhibited in Dijon. This art-piece has travelled around the world and was last shown at Musée d’Art Modern in Paris. The delicate electronic ingredients heard in “Cosmodrome” became a link into Jay-Jay’s next album “Antenna” released 2002, an ambitious side project, recorded with assistance from german electronica experimentalists Funkstörung.
Source : Last FM
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