Johan Berthling
Swedish bassist who also run the Häpna record label together with Klas Augustsson.
Swedish bassist who also run the Häpna record label together with Klas Augustsson.
Tokuzo
Tip! The trio of Japanese Saxophone legend Akira Sakata with the scandinavian rhythm section presents already his fifth album! While the trio was on a Japan tour in 2019, Sakata arranged for a handful of special collaborations, with some of Japan’s most important artistic figures. Featuring the avantgarde dancer Min Tanaka, the pianist Yuji Takahashi and a heavyweight veteran of Japanese experimental music - drummer Takeo Moriyama. Moriyama was playing with Sakata in the Yosuke Yamashita Trio an…
Ghosted II
In 2021, Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin convened in Stockholm’s Studio Rymden to bring forth several monstrously hypnotic improvisations, ultimately bearing their debut: 2022’s widely-acclaimed Ghosted. Two years on, Drag City is now pleased to announce the release of Ghosted II, out on April 26, 2024. Here, Oren, Johan and Andreas have crafted a follow-up record that fuels a rock-solid foundation with years of performing live together as a trio: a fulmination of propelling g…
Björnhorn
*100 copies limited release* Recorded and mixed by Daniel Bengtson at Studio Rymden, Stockholm, Feb 2021Produced by Alex Zethson & Johan BerthlingMastered by Daniel Ögren
All music by Johan Berthling except For Turiya by Charlie HadenDedicated to Maria, Arvid & Vidar
Produced with support from the Swedish Arts Council
Ghosted
It was early in 2019 — no, November 2018! — that Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin met at Studio Rymden, in a quiet suburban district of Stockholm, to make the music that became Ghosted.
Threnody, At The Gates
This trio is on to something extraordinary; full on furor brushed w thin melodic lines or rage contained in a certain kind of drunken beauty and bliss - all stumbling on towards the heard and the unheard - in a whisper, in a shriek, forces joined and disjoined....This trio is the whole in the never ending audible crack Johan Berthling: double bass; Martin Küchen: tenor and soprano saxophones, retardophone, flute; Steve Noble: drums and percussion. Recorded by David Carlsson at Gula Studion, Malm…
Tongue Tied
Oren Ambarchi and Johan Berthling are two masters of reducing music’s peak intensities to their root meaning. Oren’s early solo guitar works rendered this process with an instantly recognisable combination of sine wave throb and precisely controlled attack that has bloomed in maturity – concentrating the ecstatic potential of the guitar solo by folding it back on itself and stacking the points of greatest liminal intensity into waves of powerfully psychedelic excess while also encompassing …
Semikujira
LP version. Arashi presents Semikujira. Arashi is: Akira Sakata - alto saxophone, clarinet, voice; Johan Berthling - double bass; Paal Nilssen-Love - drums & percussion. The Wire about Arashi (TROST 130CD/LP), the trio's first release: "there are moments on this album when the energy is so furiously intense it feels like it's going to spin out of control and take someone's eye out. Sakata delivers wry alto phrases, as though from the corner of his mouth, before digressing into urgent flights of …
Tongue
Oren Ambarchi and Johan Berthling are two masters of reducing music's peak intensities to their root meaning. Oren's early solo guitar works rendered this process with an instantly recognisable combination of sine wave throb and precisely controlled attack that has bloomed in maturity - concentrating the ecstatic potential of the guitar solo by folding it back on itself and stacking the points of greatest liminal intensity into waves of powerfully psychedelic excess while also encompassing…
Night in Europe
Featuring Martin Kuchen on alto sax, Johan Berthling on bass and Steve Noble on drums. I haven't heard this yet but I must admit that Martin Kuchen is one the best, most creative, diverse and inspired saxists we've heard from Scandinavia in the past decade. Check out any discs from his bands: Angles, Exploding Customer, Trespass Trio or All Included and you will hear some of the best playing around! Bassist Johan Berhling is also a member of Angles, Fire! Orchestra and projects with Ken Va…
Arashi
Legendary japanese musician Akira Sakata (active in various groups since the early 70s) teams up with Berthling of Fire and Nilssen-Love of The Thing. Akira Sakata, alto saxophone, clarinet, voice. Johan Berthling, double bass. Paal Nilssen-Love, drums & percussion.
My days are darker than your nights
“Pure drone bliss on offer here from the prolific Australian guitar experimentalist Oren Ambarchi (whom you may already know) and Swedish musician Johan Berthling (a less familiar name -- he's brother to Andreas Berthling,and with him a member of the field recordings group Tape, who are also to be found on Hapna). These two got together in a studio in Stockholm last year with the intent to drone, and drone they did, Ambarchi on electric guitar and Berthling playing the harmonium. They recorded w…