Åke Hodell

Åke Hodell (April 30, 1919 - July 29, 2000, Stockholm, Sweden) was a Swedish fighter pilot, poet, author, playwright, painter, publisher, electroacoustic / text-sound composer, and visual artist. Son of author Björn Hodell and brother of actress Ulla Hodell, Åke Hodell was trained as a fighter pilot, but after a crash in a field in southernmost Sweden in Skåne during practice in July 17, 1941 he had to spend two years at Lund's hospital where he befriended Swedish author Gunnar Ekelöf, and also became a dedicated anti-militarist. In 1944, while heading the children's theatre department at Malmö Stadsteater, Hodell wrote a satirical play about inner city children, Rännstensungar, which he set up at the movie theatre Amiralen in Malmö that year. It also became a low-brow comedy movie the same year (with a remake in 1974, and an "inspired of" movie, Förortsungar in 1996 with a nine-year-old Gustaf Skarsgård). Hodell published his first text with the book Flyende pilot in 1953, and began experimenting with what he called "elektronismer", later known as "text-sound composition": a blend of radioplay and musique concrète focused on narratives and their electronic enhancements. Many radioplays were produced at Sveriges Radio, often with a strong political theme, such as the banned Mr. Smith in Rhodesia from 1969. He also worked with Pistolteatern in Stockholm, and on Nov. 4, 1964 he set up his play, Lågsniff, at Moderna Muséet, and again in January 1965 at Pistolteatern, which Sveriges Television recorded and also aired in December that year. From 1963 to 1972, Hodell ran Kerberos Förlag which published books by Öyvind Fahlström, Christer Hennix Lille, and himself, as well as translations of Vladimir Majakovskij and Arthur Cravan.