Björn Isfält

Björn Isfält was a Swedish musician and composer, born June 28, 1942 in Linköping, Sweden. He devoted himself especially to film music. Isfält was educated at the Stockholm Academy of Music in the 1960s - specialising in cello - and at Trinity College of Music in London. He made his debut with Roy Andersson's film En kärlekshistoria from 1970, but is perhaps still best known through children's movie classics such as the three Astrid Lindgren movies Bröderna Lejonhjärta, Rasmus på luffen and Ronja Rövardotter, among others. His international claim to fame was composing the soundtrack to the 1993 Hollywood hit What's Eating Gilbert Grape (with Johnny Depp and [a1408345]), directed by his fellow Swede, [a1537978], whose 1985 Swedish hit My Life as a Dog he also composed the soundtrack for. Isfält stood for a well-thought-out film musical narrative in several different genres. And in 1989 he won a Guldbagge (the "Swedish Oscar") in the category "best creative effort", for the music for the feature film "Resan till Melonia". For 30 years, he was one of Sweden's most prolific and respected film composers. Often he would play all featured instruments by himself, especially piano, guitar and flute. He died died from cancer January 17, 1997 in Gamla Enskede, Stockholm, Sweden.