ArtistInfo

Lars Karlsson

acc, perc, b,
World
A.k.a. Lars Patrik Karlsson

Accordion player/artist. Lars Karlsson, born on April 16, 1971 in Fjärås, Sweden, is the youngest son in the family business Karlssons Musik AB in Fjärås, a shop which is the biggest within the Nordic countries on accordions and accordion playing. But, since the 1990s, he has also had his own career as an accomplished instrumentalist on diatonic accordion, the smaller and more clean form of accordion. He started playing at the age of 10, did his first appearance on nationwide television in the year after and participated on numerous recordings with other accordionists. In 1996, he released the CD "Inspiration" and his career then took a leap and he also did a lot of more television appearances in that year. He plays by ear. It started when he was sent to a music school by his parents, in his early school years, to learn reading notes and to play on an accordion, but he just pretended to read the notes and was successful with that for awhile, before his teacher realized that he was only playing by ear. And he still does. He started with the diatonic accordion at the age of 10, after hearing two girls from Norway playing on that instrument at the accordion club in Fjärås, and he liked the sound of the instrument. Like many born in the 1970s, Lars Karlsson listened to rock artists and his influences are everything from Kiss, Deep Purple and Whitesnake, to The Sweet, Van Halen or the legendary Irish blues and rock guitarist Gary Moore. He is also influenced by artists like Electric Light Orchestra and Joe Bonamassa. In 1997, the four-piece band Lars Karlsson Band was formed and they had their first CD released in 1998. With the band, Lars Karlsson’s compositions and his diatonic accordion met and attracted a more variated audience of listeners. The band still play folklike songs, but they also like to mix styles, rock, funk, tango or more latin-influenced notes. Lars Karlsson still performs as soloist but also in duos and trios with other well-known accordionists like Bengan Jansson, Pierre Eriksson, Jörgen Sundeqvist, Øivind Farmen, Bernt Andersson, Mats Edén, Anders Larsson (17), Bjørnar Haugen and others. Lars Karlsson won the Nordic championship in diatonic accordion in 1993 and did also win a couple of contests in Sweden in the 1980s, when he competed there. After that, he has served in different juries and made the decisions in many diatonic accordion contests. In 2001, he was the first diatonic accordionist to have been voted as the accordionist of the year by the members of Sveriges Dragspelares Riksförbund.

Instruments

• Accordion
• Percussion
• Bass

Plays With