Ralph Lundsten (born 6 October 1936) is a
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
composer of
electronic music, as well as a
film director
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...
,
artist
An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...
and
author.
He was born and raised in
Ersnäs
Ersnäs is a locality situated in Luleå Municipality, Norrbotten County, Sweden with 292 inhabitants in 2010. It is home to Ersnäs IF
Ersnäs IF is a Swedish football club located in Ersnäs, Luleå.
Background
Ersnäs IF currently plays ...
,
Norrbotten, in northern Sweden, and now lives in
Nacka
Nacka () is the municipal seat of Nacka Municipality and part of Stockholm urban area in Sweden. The municipality's name harks back to a 16th-century industrial operation established by the Crown at Nacka farmstead where conditions for water mil ...
on the outskirts of
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
, still close to the forest and the sea. His home is Castle Frankenburg, a pink wooden mansion dating from 1878 which also houses his electronic music studio, Andromeda Studio.
Since 1959 he has lived an independent life, creating his own personal
musical language
Musical languages are constructed languages based on musical sounds, which tend to incorporate articulation. Unlike tonal languages, focused on stress, and whistled languages, focused on pitch bends, musical languages distinguish pitches or rhyt ...
, and preparing original films and exhibitions. His song ''Out in the Wide World'' served as the
interval signal for
Radio Sweden International's shortwave broadcasts, while a modified stanza from his 1970 song "" was used by
Sveriges Utbildningsradio during long breaks between its educational television programming on
Sveriges Television
Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksdag (national ...
(SVT) in the late 1970s.
During the 1950s Lundsten built his own electronic musical instruments and was one of the first pioneers in this field.
He was awarded the
Illis quorum in 2008.
Albums
* 1966 – (). ('The electronic music studio')
* 1967 – ''MUMS ()''. 'Music beneath millions of stars'
* 1968 – (with Leo Nilson). 'Electronic music'
* 1969 – . 'Tellus. Blue Bird'
* 1969 – . 'Suite for electronic accordion'
* 1970 – . 'Erik XIV and Carvings'
* 1970 – . 'Beer forest'
* 1971 – 'Nightmare'
* 1972 – . 'Our Father'
* 1973 – . 'The Water Sprite: Nordic Nature Symphony No. 1'
* 1973 – . 'Horror and laughter, trips in unknown worlds'
* 1975 – ''Shangri-La''
* 1975 – . 'Johannes and the Lady of the Woods: Nordic Nature Symphony No. 2'
* 1976 – ''Cosmic Love''
* 1977 – ''Ralph Lundsten's Universe''
* 1978 – ''Discophrenia''
* 1979 – ''Alpha Ralpha Boulevard''
* 1980 – . 'Paradise Symphony'
* 1981 – . 'A Midwinter Saga: Nordic Nature Symphony No. 3'
* 1982 – ''The New Age''
* 1983 – 'A Summer Saga: Nordic Nature Symphony No. 4/Pop Age'
* 1984 – '(Bewitched: Nordic Nature Symphony No. 5)/Dreamscape'
* 1985 – (contains ''The Ages of Man''). 'Welcome'
* 1986 – ''Fantasia by Starlight'' – (CD/LP/cassette published in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
). 'Starry night fantasy'
* 1986 – ''The Dream Master''
* 1990 – (
Max von Sydow reads Gustav Sandgren's story "", accompanied by Lundsten's music) 'Johannes and the lady of the woods'
* 1992 – . 'Landscape of Dreams: Nordic Nature Symphony No. 6'
* 1993 – ''Nordic Light''
* 1994 – ''The Joy of Being''
* 1995 – ''In Time and Space''
* 1996 – ''Inspiration—Sweden'' (contains "Landscape of Dreams" and "Our Father") (
EMI Classics)
* 1996 – . 'The Seasons: Nordic Nature Symphony No. 7'
* 2002 – . 'A Vagabond of the Soul'
* 2003 – ''Cosmic Phantazy''
* 2004 – . 'Pathways of the Mind'
* 2005 – ''Like the wind my longing – Classic pearls 1972–2004''
* 2007 – 'Out in the Wide World': (Latin: ''Symphony of
Linnaeus''), Out in the Wide World, In the early Days of Summer, Song of the Mermaids, A Summer Saga (first performance)
* 2007 – ''Lovetopia''
* 2008 – ''Electronic Music from the 60s and 70s'' (a boxed set composed of four previously released CDs)
* 2008 – ''Dance in the Endless Night''
* 2010 – ''I sagans värld''
* 2013 – ''River of Time''
* 2020 – ''I svunnen tid''
References
External links
Andromeda Studio– Official web site (in Swedish).
Ralph's going to take you to another dimension– An article from The Local with a video about the Andromeda Galaxy Embassy (in English).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lundsten, Ralph
Swedish composers
Swedish male composers
New-age musicians
1936 births
EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists
Living people
Recipients of the Illis quorum