Lundsten, Ralph
Lundsten, Ralph
Lundsten, Ralph, Swedish composer, film creator, and artist; b. Ersnäs, Oct. 6, 1936. He was basically autodidact; settled in the wooden fairy-tale mansion of Castle Frankenburg (built 1878) in Saltsjö-Boo, where he founded Andromeda (1959), Sweden’s best-known private electronic music studio and film center. A pioneer in electronic music in Sweden, he has gone on to secure an international following via the popularity of the “New Age” movement. In 1982 the Andromeda Fan Soc. was organized to promote his activities as a composer, artist, and “New Age” visionary. In 1984 Radio Sweden International adopted “Out in the Wide World” from his Nordic Nature Symphony No. 4, A Summer Saga as its theme signature for its international broadcasts. Much of his output has been recorded and performed throughout the world. In 1991-92 his work as a portrait artist was the subject of a special exhibition at Stockholm’s Music Museum.
Works
Aloha Arita (1966); Kaleidoscope (1966); Mums: EMS No. 1 (1967); 3 Electronic “Pop” Pieces (1967); Visions of Flying Saucers (1967); Happy Music (1968); Winter Music (1968); Mizar (1968); Tellus (1969); Blue Bird (1969); Suite for Electronic Accordion (1969); Energy for Biological Computer (1969); Erik XIV (1969); Carvings (1969); Ölskog: Through a Landscape of Mirrors (1970); Cosmic Love—Trial and Discussion (1970); Gustav III (1971); Nightmare (1971); Ourfather (1972); Nordic Nature Sympony No. 1, The Water Sprite (1972-73); The Midnight Hour (1973); Ode to a Lost Soul (1973); On Tottering Toes (1973); Feel It (1973); Gunnar of Lidarände (1973); Shangri-la (1975); Winter Music (1975); Heaven by Night (1975); Raped Planet (1975); Icelandic Dancing Pictures (1975); Nordic Symphony No. 2, Johannes and the Lady of the Woods (1975); Universe (1977); Discophrenia (1978); Alpha Ralpha Boulevard (1979); Paradise Symphony (1980); Nordic Nature Symphony No.3, A Midwinter Saga (1981); The New Age (1982); Aspects of Nature (1982); Nordic Nature Symphony No. 4, A Summer Saga (1983); Strangers in Paradise (1984); Nordic Nature Symphony No. 5, Bewitched (1984); Dreamscape (1984); Welcome (1985); Fantasia by Starlight (1986); The Dream Master (1986); Suite amoroso (1986); The Gate of Time (1988); Nordic Nature Symphony No. 6, Landscape of Dreams (1990); The Symphony of Joy (1994).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire