Anders Lind, Honorary Doctor at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Anders Lind grew up in Västertorp, a suburban part of Stockholm. His great interest in bird watching resulted in him choosing to specialise in biology in upper secondary school, from which he graduated in 1965. After graduation, he enrolled in university studies but immediately started working as a substitute teacher in a lower secondary school in Västertorp, teaching biology and geography. Anders Lind then started working at LM Ericsson with mounting and testing of safety equipment for traffic and trains, more specifically, relay control systems for signal lights.
"A more thorough training in soldering is hard to imagine. When I got my pay check, I bought a semi-professional tape recorder, Revox G36, which I modified to improve the sound quality. In addition to my interest in birds and biology during my years in upper secondary school, I also turned into a HiFi nerd and built my own speakers and an amplifier using a building block kit, and I listed to a lot of jazz records. I also spent a lot of time in the jazz club Gyllene cirkeln, where I discovered a duo called Hansson & Karlsson. After nagging them for quite some time, I finally got to record them live and then I was hooked.
Anders Lind went to Paris and London in the summer of 1967. He returned home as a hippie and started working part-time as a DJ at the psychedelic club Filips in Stockholm.
"The club played a mix of jazz, rock and avant-garde music and many of the artists and bands were happy to be recorded, which led to a lot of contacts for the future. I started working at AB Ljudåtergivning in 1967, where I met my mentor, Ingemar Ohlsson. The company was specialised in sound – everything from constructions to installations to help artists with all sorts of exhibitions that included sound. AB Ljudåtergivning was also in charge of audio and sound for Rikskonserter during various tours, as well as Fylkingen, an artist-based association for experimental music and art – their electron music concerts with 4-channel sound toured around the country."
Together with Bengt Göran Staaf and AB Ljudåtergivning, Anders Lind founded Studio Decibel AB, which specialised in recordings and releases of the new progressive music style that had begun to emerge in Sweden during 1966-69. Decibel Records released two records, one with the band Harvester and one with Träd, Gräs och Stenar. In 1970, Silence Records was founded, which initially only released music but later also opened their own music studio in Koppom, Värmland, in 1979. Anders Lind is known for a special sound in his productions and his work is always a true experience to the listener. This is also something that he wants to convey to the students of the Music Production Programme at Ingesund School of Music, a programme which he inspired to and with which he has a close collaboration.
"There needs to be a creative environment in a recording studio where you listen to each other and where the whole is more important than the individual parts. There has to be an authenticity in the sound so that it does not sound like separate parts being pieced together but that it allows the listener to be present in the experience."
Anders Lind is awarded an honorary doctorate for his commitment and collaboration with Ingesund School of Music.
"At first it felt surreal, but now I’m very excited and honoured."
When Anders Lind is not recording music in his studio, he enjoys being out in nature and on occasion he makes recordings there as well – of bird song and all sorts of nature sounds.