Welcome! My name is Carl-Otto Johansson and I'm from Sweden. I write and record songs. Occasionally, I also write in this blog.
Please enjoy and share the music - it's free.
I have just finished a project in which I wrote 15 songs during the month of February. I also recorded them all and you can listen to them in the jukebox on the right that says "February Album Writing Month". Some recordings are finished, others are demos. Other new and older songs are in the jukebox below. Don't forget to like the facebook page to receive updates of new songs and events.
If you can't see the playlist in the jukebox, try refreshing the page until you do.
Since I released “Orphan Songs” on Jamendo I’ve recieved a number of requests from film makers who wishes to use my music in their films and projects. I’ve watched all the clips I’ve been sent and I really appreciate you letting me know. I love seeing how something I made is being used in a new context and fused with images that other people made. Many of the films and animations you’ve sent me have been great. There is so much talent out there!
I got a request for an instrumental version of “What you want is lost” from an animator who wanted to use it in her bachelor project. I didn’t have an instrumental version, but I went back to the tapes and did a new mix without vocals. I also dug up two instrumentals I recorded some years ago. One was recorded as a signature tune for a radio show called “Flampunkt” (flashpoint), hosted by one of my friends. The other one was just a melody that got stuck in my head and that I just had to record. To me, it’s sounded almost like a Russian dance melody of some sort. So I wanted to give it a name with a Russian touch. I called it “Karelin” after Aleksandr Karelin, the greatest wrestler of our time. I’ll share them here for free download and under the CC license BY-SA. Perhaps they will come in handy for one of you film makers out there. Give it a listen!
You can also download the mp3:s on the download page.
Fun fact: I’m playing the clarinet on both tracks. Clarinet was the instrument I played as a child. I hated it (and so did my cat). The day my mother finally agreed to take me to the music store to trade in the clarinet for an acoustic guitar was one ot the happiest days of my youth. The clarinet you hear me playing on these recordings (and on “Orphan Songs”) I borrowed from my neighbour Christine back when I was living in Malmö.
I’ve set up a Youtube Channel and uploaded my first clip. It’s the opening song from the 2008 release concert for the debut album at Söderport down by the castle here in Kalmar. For some reason I started the show with a song that was NOT on the album. I guess you could call that “commerical suicide” – haha! But it always more fun playing new songs than old. The problem for me (and all other unknown artists) is that we don’t understand that to most people listening ALL songs are new and that the few fans that show up at our gigs want to hear songs they have heard on records. But what the heck! I’ve never been much of a crowd pleaser.
“Midsummer’s dream” is a song I wrote in 2007. I remember my son Svante particularly liked this song. He was just nine or ten months at the time I wrote it, but he always listened carefully whenever I played it. At times when he refused to eat I used to go get the guitar and play this song. He would sit perfectly still… listening… forgetting that we were shoveling food into his mouth.
I will try to keep the Youtube channel alive by uploading old and new clips – live recordings, demos and other stuff. Unfortunately, I neither have the time nor the skill to make proper music videos for my songs, but perhaps you do. Feel free to use my music for any music video project. I’d love that.
Orphan Songs (2008) is now available through Jamendo, a community of free, legal and unlimited music published under Creative Commons licenses. According to the site they are the “number 1 platform for free music.” Sounds okay to me.
To be left alone was a song I originally wrote for the 2008 Orphan Songs album. I left it out for several reasons. When putting the track listing together it didn’t really fit with the rest of the songs. The production was slightly different and the lyrics was perhaps not in line with the rest of the album. The song is a story about someone who is trying to find some sort of refuge in this crazy, noisy world where everything seems to be for sale and where the human race is consuming/destroying the earth at an alarming rate.
Writing this I recall a kid’s story from one of my favourite albums when I was young, “Barnlåtar” by James & Karin. It was called “Sagan om Stefan” (Stefan’s story) and it was about a boy who left his home to go live in the woods. He built a house, learned to find food and felt really happy and at peace. But after a while a forest ranger came and told him he had had to tear down the house if he couldn’t produce a building permit. The story ends as Stefan decides to take a stand and tells the forest ranger: “I don’t care!” I have not thought of the similarities of To be left alone and Sagan om Stefan before, but it’s obvious to me now.
Nathan Kremitzki, one of my most trusted friends when it comes to my music called To be left alone the most depressing song I ever wrote. Perhaps it is. Well, it’s not uplifting that’s for sure. But it’s sincere. Sometimes I feel like I want go live the rest of my days in a tree top somewhere deep in the forest – just to be left alone.
The music on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons License that lets you download, share, remix and do whatever you like as long as you give credit to Orphan Songs/Eyedrop and link to this website.
Jukebox
Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing!
Facebook page
February Album Writing Month - 15 songs written in 29 days.
Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing!
