Gravitonas is a Swedish

electronic rock Electronic rock is a music genre that involves a combination of rock music and electronic music, featuring instruments typically found within both genres. It originates from the late 1960s, when rock bands began incorporating electronic instrume ...

band formed in 2009 and signed to Sofo Records (Sweden) and

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, Dutch law. UMG's cor ...

(worldwide) in 2010. The band is fronted by vocalist Andreas Öhrn and formerly by record producer and songwriter

Alexander Bard Alexander Bengt Magnus Bard (born 17 March 1961) is a Swedish musician, author, lecturer, artist, songwriter, music producer, TV personality, religious and political activist, and one of the founders of the Syntheist religious movement alongside ...

(of

Army Of Lovers Army of Lovers is a Swedish dance- pop group which formed in 1987 and had a number of hits in Europe throughout the 1990s. Some of their biggest successes include the song "Crucified", which was a big hit in Europe, charting 31 weeks in the E ...

and BWO fame). Other collaborators in the project include keyboardist and producer Henrik Wikström and guitar player Ben Smith. Gravitonas are among the front figures of the Scandinavian

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

scene, often linked to artists like

Robyn Robin Miriam Carlsson (born 12 June 1979), known as Robyn (), is a Swedish pop singer, songwriter, record producer, and DJ. She arrived on the music scene with her 1995 debut album, ''Robyn Is Here'', which produced two Billboard Hot 100, ''Bil ...

, The Knife,

Lykke Li Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson (born 18 March 1986), known as Lykke Li (), is a Swedish singer. Her music often blends elements of indie pop, dream pop and electronic. Her debut studio album, ''Youth Novels'', was released in 2008, and has been fol ...

Röyksopp Röyksopp (), a Norwegian electronic music duo from Tromsø formed in 1998. The duo consists of Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland. Berge and Brundtland were introduced to each other through a mutual friend in Tromsø, Norway. They enjoye ...

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, and

Miike Snow Miike Snow (pronounced "Mike Snow") is a Swedish indie pop band formed in 2007. The band consists of producing team Bloodshy & Avant and American singer Andrew Wyatt. The band is often represented by a silhouette image of a jackalope. In their ca ...

, with whom they have also performed on several occasions.

History

Gravitonas' debut single ''Kites'' was released in April 2010 and spent four consecutive months in the Top 10 of the Swedish Dance Chart. The release featured remixes by a number of Scandinavia's leading electronic acts such as

Dada Life Dada Life are a Swedish DJ duo formed in 2006, which consists of Olle Cornéer and Stefan Engblom. They have released three albums, a number of singles and remixes and one compilation. The duo had early chart success in Belgium and the Netherlan ...

and SoundFactory. A second release, ''The Hypnosis EP'', was released digitally and internationally by Universal Music on 18 August 2010, featuring the band's second single ''Religious'' as its lead track. ''Religious'' entered the Russian Hot 100 chart in November 2010 staying in the charts for over four months and receiving over 100,000 plays on Russian national radio, after which the track was successfully exported to the U.S. where it peaked at #28 in the

Billboard Magazine ''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the music ...

Club Play Chart in April, 2011. A third release, ''The Coliseum EP'', was released digitally on 3 November 2010, featuring lead single and video ''You Break Me Up''. Lead vocalist Andreas Öhrn and guitar player Ben Smith have since the launch of Gravitonas also taken up successful careers as songwriters and producers for other artists, including #1 hit singles in Japan for boy bands

Hey! Say! JUMP Hey! Say! JUMP (HSJ or JUMP) is an eight-member Japanese boy band under the Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates. The group is split into two sub-groups: Hey! Say! BEST and Hey! Say! 7. In Japan they sold more than 10 million physical co ...

and

Kis-My-Ft2 is a seven-member Japanese boy band under Johnny & Associates, with members Hiromitsu Kitayama, Kento Senga, Toshiya Miyata, Wataru Yokoo, Taisuke Fujigaya, Yuta Tamamori and Takashi Nikaidō. The group was a former Johnny's Jr. unit which de ...

. Öhrn & Smith also wrote and produced the soundtrack for ''I Miss You'', a movie by Swedish director Anders Grönros which was released in September 2011 and peaked at #2 in the Swedish Box Office Chart. A collaboration track with Russian pop star Roma Kenga called ''Everybody Dance'' was released on 25 May 2011. This exclusive Swedish-Russian co-production was created through the joined forces of Universal Music Russia, Swedish record label Sofo Records, and Perpetuum Music. ''Everybody Dance'' entered the Russian Airplay Top 30 in July 2011 and was playlisted on the A-List of Eastern Europe's biggest radio network

Europa Plus Europa Plus () is a Russian commercial radio station. It is owned by the European Media Group and started broadcasting on 30 April 1990. It is mainly formatted with Hot AC and Top 40. Europa Plus began brodcasting in the USSR in 1990. Europa P ...

. The single has since charted in a further six European countries. ''Everybody Dance'' entered the Billboard Club Chart Top 50 in the U.S. on 21 November 2011 and eventually peaked at #19 becoming Gravitonas' first U.S. Top 20 hit. A single and video called ''Lucky Star'' was released globally as a digital EP on 15 September 2011. The track was premiered live on ''Crimea Music Festival'', the biggest music festival in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...

, broadcast from

Yalta Yalta (: Я́лта) is a resort city on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea. It serves as the administrative center of Yalta Municipality, one of the regions within Crimea. Yalta, along with the rest of Crimea ...

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

on 8 September 2011 after which the track became a Top 20 hit single in five European countries, going all the way to #1 in

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

. A single and video called ''Call Your Name'' was released on 14 March 2012 followed by a six-track EP called ''Black Ceremony'' on 21 March. According to a message in 2015 sent by Alexander Bard himself on the Gravitonas

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

fan page, he left the group and the music industry shortly after 2013 to focus on his philosophy career.https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10207502969556374&set=p.10207502969556374&type=3&theater In 2015, Andreas Öhrn posted a message indicating that the group had formed its own record company. The first single released was "My Chemical Breakdown" featuring Japanese rapper Gashima. In 2019, Japanese pop group

EXILE Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...

released "Love of History", for which Öhrn was credited as one of the track's composers along with Christian Fast, Henrik Nordenback, and EXILE vocalist/lyricist Atsushi Satō.

Singles

References

External links

Official website

Fan website

Artist page at Facebook

Gravitonas Facebook Community Site

Artist page at Universal Music
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gravitonas Swedish electronic music groups Universal Music Group artists