Biography

David Stackenäs was born in 1974 in Stockholm, Sweden. After finishing his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm he has grown to become one of the mainstays of improvised and creative music in Sweden.

Stackenäs works in the field of contemporary jazz and free improvised music. Over the years he has developed a unique way of playing guitar – both prepared with different materials as well as conventional technique and a growing armada of pedals. With a wide range of sounds and techniques he creates music with great imagination and poetry. As a soloist he mainly focuses on acoustic guitars, using a lot of the organic sound- possibillities and timbres the instrument has to offer.

Has toured as soloist and with many different groups in Europe, the US, Japan and the Middle East. In 2000 David released critics ́ acclaimed cd the guitar on swedish label Häpna and has since then released bow on Kning-Disk (2006), Separator on Found You Recordings (2009) and BRICKS on Clean Feed (2017). Also plays with LabField (w/ Ingar Zach), Kim Myhr You|Me, Ballrogg,  CIRCADIA, Lina Nyberg Band, Emil Strandberg trio, Tatsuya Nakatani/David Stackenäs DUO and Holm/Stackenäs DUO and has participated as musician and made music for many different theatre- and dancepieces. Since 2000 he has participated on 40 albums.

Through the years he has played with, among many others: Evan Parker, Barry Guy, Lina Nyberg, Sofia Jernberg, Rhodri Davies, Paul Lovens, Axel Dörner, Sten Sandell, Thurston Moore, Mazen Kerbaj, Christine Abdelnour, Ken Vandermark, Paal Nilssen-Love, Cecilia Persson, Jim O’’Rourke, Tatsuya Nakatani. 

“…Stackenäs, whose acoustic guitar solo…was a personal highlight of FOTC 2004. Sounding a bit like a detuned John Russell, Stackenäs evokes the strange lute and harp music of Ethiopia, Kenya or Mauritania, sustaining pace and inspiration throughout…” JMVS – Paris Transatlantic 

“The large number of expressions he creates have in common that they seem true and well-reflected. Stackenäs is present in his material, either …. kindly with feedback tradition or creating sound and rythm that goes beyond common ground of the guitar…[Stackenäs] combines the playful and the sofisticated.” -Arild R Anderssen, Aftenposten, Norway 

“Creating something different — not to mention memorable — with the world’s most popular instrument, the guitar, often seems as unlikely as winning the national lottery. Yet young Swedish guitarist David Stackenäs has done so on this short, cunningly enigmatic disc.” Ken Waxman, Jazz Weekly on the solo-album “the guitar”