Sten Sandell was born in 1958. From 1976 to 1986 he undertook wide-ranging studies; on piano with Mats Persson and Carl-Axel Dominique; in improvisation/composition with Sven-David Sandstrom; and with Par Lindgren into electro-acoustic music. He attended the Academy of Music in Stockholm during the period 1981 to 1986.
His influences are broad and include free improvisation, contemporary music (John Cage, Morton Feldman, I. Xenakis etc.), and ethnic music (classical music from India, Japan, Iran etc. folk music from Sweden, Norway, North Africa).

From 1976 to the present day, Sten has been involved in group work, soloprojects and in dance, drama, and film The two long-standing groups are Sa Vidare and Gush (from 1988 and ongoing) with saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and percussionist
Raymond Strid, well known for their free improvised music. He has toured in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Holland, France, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Bosnia, Canada and USA (”Free Music”-90, Antwerpen 1990; Solo-92 in Stockholm, FMP-festival in Berlin -94, Nickelsdorf - 95, 96, Switzerland, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Canada 1996, Tampere Jazz 1996, Sarajevo and Tuzla Winter Festival 1997 among others.

Sten Sandell has collaborated with Sven-Åke Johansson, Chris Cutler, Carl-Axel Dominique, Anders Jormin, Sainkho Namchylak, Mats Persson, Kristine Scholz, David Moss, Philipp Wachsmann, Simon Steensland, Mats Gustafsson, Raymond Strid,
Barry Guy, Johan Petri, Ellika Frisell, Susan Taslimi, Pär Milstam, Mats Öberg, Morgan Ågren, Peter Oskarson, Lars Wassrin among others.

Sten Sandell

Sten appears on the following SOFA-releases