Pär Lindgren

Pär Lindgren (Jörgen) was born in Gothenburg on 16 January 1952 and is one of the Swedish composers associated with electroacoustic music. His initial training was in rock, a field he left in order to professionalise as a guitar teacher at the Framnäs School of Music, where he studied between 1970 and 1974.

Between 1975 and 1979 he studied composition with Bucht and Bodin at the Royal Conservatory of Stockholm. From 1980 he taught electroacoustic music at the same institution, and in 1998 he was appointed professor of composition.

Electroacoustic music has been central to his work since the late 1970s, although over time a refined, versatile instrumental music with a carefully crafted structure gained in prominence. Much of his inspiration comes from non-European music: in Oaijé, which won the International Tribune of Composers in Paris in 1996, the sound and melodic line reflect Arabic patterns. Other works draw on visual images, such as Fragments of a Circle, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of the movement of water, or Sea Cuts and Islands, whose abstract designs derive from nature. To translate these ideas into sound, he consistently relies on algorithms and computer programs.

His catalogue spans orchestral, chamber, vocal and mixed-media works, including music for theatre and film. His aspiration, according to the source itself, is a transparent, sparkling music that maintains a new relationship with tradition.