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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 [b]Gunnar Ekelöf[/b], and also became a dedicated anti-militarist. In 1944, while heading the children's theatre department at [b]Malmö Stadsteater[/b], Hodell wrote a satirical play about inner city children, [i]Rännstensungar[/i], which he set up at the movie theatre [b]Amiralen[/b] 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, [i]Förortsungar[/i] in 1996 with a nine-year-old Gustaf Skarsgård). Hodell published his first text with the book [i]Flyende pilot[/i] 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 [l=Sveriges Radio], often with a strong political theme, such as the banned [i]Mr. Smith in Rhodesia[/i] from 1969. He also worked with [b]Pistolteatern[/b] in Stockholm, and on Nov. 4, 1964 he set up his play, [i]Lågsniff[/i], at [b]Moderna Muséet[/b], and again in January 1965 at Pistolteatern, which [a2470241] recorded and also aired in December that year. From 1963 to 1972, Hodell ran [l=Kerberos Förlag] which published books by Öyvind Fahlström, Christer Hennix Lille, and himself, as well as translations of Vladimir Majakovskij and Arthur Cravan.