Johan Agebjörn

Johan Agebjörn is an accomplished electronic music producer and a driving force behind the mysterious neo-Italo disco group Sally Shapiro, but on the newly re-released Music With Less Electricity, no trace of electro-pop can be found. There's also no trace of electricity, for that matter. In 2003, Agebjörn was afflicted with a rare and incapacitating condition that caused him to be hypersensitive to electromagnetic radiation, preventing him from being near virtually any form of electronic device. He was forced to retreat to a cottage in the Swedish countryside, and it's from that period of intense solitude and imposed isolation that Less Electricity was conceived. The album is mottled with shaky playing, questionable choices and botched notes, but is a perfect specimen nonetheless. It's exactly what it appears to be: pure catharsis, an exorcism of isolated frustration and polarized emotion. This is neo-classical pop songwriting at its best, sluiced from the streams of Debussy and Erik Satie.