Karl Ekdahl
sound installation
Baltimore

Karl Ekdahl was born in Uppsala / Sweden and moved to the USA around 2005. For Ekdahl, musical creation and electronic/mechanic engineering have always been an obvious combination, starting with the building of a computer sound card at age 11 for the purpose of making noises and electronic pop music. Always failing at school, he was self taught in the arts of music, electronics, computer programming and clothing design. In the late 90's he started making clothes, combining things like electronics, liquid latex, inner tubes, gas masks and bread pans. At the same time he also started making "serious" analog electronic instruments, including modular synthesizers. Never quite understanding the electronics, Ekdahl often failed miserably but grew to appreciate the broad sound-palette that he could squeeze out of the half-working equipment and realized that no ready-made equipment would be it's equal.

Today Ekdahl runs a successful company utilizing the essence of that thought, deliberately mis-designing musical instruments for the future.