Christer Bothén, is a Swedish musician, composer and artist. His main instruments are bass clarinet and contrabass clarinet as well as Donso n’Goni and Guimbri.
Bothén started playing the clarinet at the age of twelve. In the early 1960s, he started a trio influenced by Jimmy Guiffre’s music. He also studied art at Valand Academy of Fine Arts from 1962 to 1967. In 1971 to 1972, Bothén lived in Mali where he studied hunters’ music and the harp lute Donso n’Goni for the master fiddler Broema Dombia in Bougoni, Wassoulou in Marrakech, Morocco, which continued with varying intensity until his death in February 2017.
From the early 1970s onwards, Bothén collaborated on and off with trumpeter Don Cherry and became his teacher in Donso n’Goni. Cherry and Bothén toured with Bengt Berger throughout Europe. Later they played in New York and at the Newport Jazz Festival with Frank Lowe, Carlos Ward, Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell and Moki Cherry. Bothén plays with members of The Jazz Composer’s Orchestra and, among others, guimbri on the soundtrack to Alejandro Jodorowsky’s film Holy Mountain. In 1974, Bothén formed the group Stjärnsvallet with Bengt Berger, Kjell Westling and Nikke Ström and was a member of the musical collective Ett minne för livet from 1978. During the 1970s, Bothén was a member of the Bitter Funeral Beer Band and played occasionally in Archimedes Badkar
In the early 1980s, Bothén formed the band Bolon Bata, a band that played his own compositions and toured extensively around Sweden; members included Bosse Skoglund Marianne N’Lemvo and Ulf Lindén. The band later became Bolon X with, among others, Morgan Ågren, Rafael Sida. The group collaborated with Ailo Gaup and Inga Jusso, yoikers from Nordkalotten. In the late 1990s, Bothén started a new group, Christer Bothén Acoustic Ensemble, which consisted of various members, including Mats Gustafsson, Paal Nilsen-Love, Kjell Nordeson, David Stackenäs, Per-Åke Holmlander, Johan Berthling, Ola Norrman and Tommy Skotte. Member of Mats Gustafsson’s Fire! Orchestra and Nu Ensemble, as well as Goran Kajfeš’s Tropiques.
Sara Lunden began writing music and performing live in 1997 during her art studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. Since the late 1990s, she has continued to develop her personal musical style, where she mixes influences from disco, schlager, chanson, electronica and minimal wave. In her live performances, she often performs in specially made costumes together with musicians, such as in Dreadly Boring, where a costumed male choir forms the stage backdrop and accompanies her singing.