Biography
So, who is Stefan Jönsson? To keep it short, I'm currently 25 years old and I live in Southern Sweden where I spend a lot of time composing electronic music - usually within progressive house, deep trance and ambient/space music genres. I think it's important to keep an open mind though, and let myself be influenced and inspired by loads of music within different genres as well.
While not making music, I'm currently studying and working with web development. As the owner of this site, this biography is written by me, and I'll therefor referr to myself as 'I'.
A brief history of Stefan
I was born back in 1982. What initially triggered my music interest and musical direction, was probably the music in the video games I used to play. I was around 7 when I got my first video game console - a SEGA Master System - and I believe that the electronic lo-fi soundtracks made a strong impact on me. I used to record the game music to cassette tape so that I could listen even when not playing. Aside from the games, I have many memories listening to my dad's Pink Floyd records such as The Wall and Wish you were here - music which still today gives me lots of inspiration.
When I was 13, I borrowed the Jean Michel Jarre-CD Images from a friend. With this CD, electronic music had come to stay in my life. About one year later I started playing around making my own sounds and music in various computer software. Melodic trance and techno were the main genres I focused on at that time. As the years passed by I tried out other genres as well, such as drum'n'bass and house music, which I'd later on become very attached to.
In 2003 I signed my first publishing agreement ever. Four of my house tracks were published as production/library music by West One Music. 2003 was also the year when I signed my first contract with Belgian record label Banshee Worx, for releasing deep clubby trance music under my Sublunar-alias. Moreover, 2003 was the year when I seriously started composing ambient music, after listening much to artists such as Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Current 93, Aphex Twin and Silent Watcher of Dark Matter.
After composing the ambient mix named 'Radio Silence', and got it broadcast at Digitally Imported, I received lots of encouraging comments from listeners all over the world. I released a limited edition CD-R version of Radio Silence, which I sold through this website. Becoming strongly attached to ambient music, I composed my second ambient album, entitled Secret Observatory. It was released in April 2005 on the American label Spotted Peccary Music. Secret Observatory received several great reviews and was chosen "best ambient album 2005" at Backroadsmusic and Electroambient Space. It was also a top pick in the 2005 year's new age category at Amazon.com.
However my endeavours in ambient music didn't mean that I left my "roots" - the club music. My track Sublunar - Sanctuary was remixed by Antidote and released summer 2005 on Banshee Worx. The remix became a huge success, supported by most big DJ:s within the trance scene. Late 2005 I also released the first vinyl 12" under the name Monodrive, a vocal deep progressive house track called Premonition, released on Existence Records.
In 2006 I released my third ambient album, Autumn Continent. Just like Secret Observatory, it got many fine reviews and made it into the Amazon.com toplist for new age 2006.
In 2007, Radio Silence was re-mastered and re-released on Spotted Peccary. Third year in a row, Radio Silence also made it into the Top New Age of 2007 at Amazon.com.
Who knows what will happen next, but my guess is that I'll keep on exploring the deeper side of progressive house music, along with the vast genre of ambient space music.
My studio
People (other musicians, mostly) often ask me what my studio looks like, what kind of equipment I use and so on. Basically my studio is all software based. The main tool I use is called Propellerheads Reason, together with a simple MIDI keyboard. I'm running Reason on a Pentium 3,2 Ghz computer with 2 GB RAM and a Terratec DMX 6Fire soundcard. For monitoring I use a pair of ESI nEar05 eXperience studio monitors and a pair of AKG K240 Studio headphones, both connected through a Soundcraft Compact4 mixer. For reference I also have an old hifi stereo from JVC. It's a somewhat minimal setup, however it works well for me.Photography
I enjoy photography, although I'd very much call me an amateur. Technology is great, because I can use a digital camera and take pictures whenever I want, without worrying about the cost and effort of developing paper copies.Here I present a few of my pictures. Nothing spectacular if compared to all the amazing photo websites out there, but what the heck :)
