Gravitonas is a Swedish

electronic rock Electronic rock (also known as electro rock and synth rock) is a music genre that involves a combination of rock music and electronic music, featuring instruments typically found within both genres. It originates from the late 1960s when rock b ...

band formed in 2009 and signed to Sofo Records (Sweden) and

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum ...

(worldwide) in 2010. The band is fronted by vocalist Andreas Öhrn and formerly by record producer and songwriter

Alexander Bard Alexander Bengt Magnus Bard (born 17 March 1961) is a Swedish musician, author, lecturer, artist, songwriter, music producer, TV personality, religious and political activist, and one of the founders of the Syntheism, Syntheist religious movement ...

(of

Army Of Lovers Army of Lovers is a Swedish dance-pop group which formed in 1987 and had a number of hits in Europe throughout the 1990s. Some of their biggest successes include the song "Crucified", which was a big hit in Europe, charting 31 weeks in the Eu ...

and BWO fame). Other collaborators in the project include keyboardist and producer Henrik Wikström and guitar player Ben Smith. Gravitonas are among the front figures of the Scandinavian

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

scene, often linked to artists like

Robyn Robin Miriam Carlsson (; born 12 June 1979), known professionally as Robyn (), is a Swedish singer, songwriter, record producer, and DJ. Her 1995 debut album ''Robyn Is Here'' produced two Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 top 10 single ...

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Lykke Li Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson (born 18 March 1986), known as Lykke Li (), is a Swedish singer, songwriter, model and actress. Her music often blends elements of indie pop, dream pop and Electronic music, electronic. Her debut studio album, ''Youth ...

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The Sound of Arrows The Sound of Arrows are a Swedish electronic music duo originally from Gävle, and now based in Stockholm. The duo, consisting of Oskar Gullstrand and Stefan Storm, have remixed tracks for artists such as Lady Gaga, Alphabeat, The Naked and Famou ...

, and

Miike Snow Miike Snow ( ) is a Swedish indie pop band formed in 2007. The band consists of producing team Bloodshy & Avant and American singer Andrew Wyatt. The band is often represented by a silhouette image of a jackalope. In their career, the band has re ...

, with whom they have also performed on several occasions.

History

Gravitonas' debut single ''Kites'' was released in April 2010 and spent four consecutive months in the Top 10 of the Swedish Dance Chart. The release featured remixes by a number of Scandinavia's leading electronic acts such as Dada Life and SoundFactory. A second release, ''The Hypnosis EP'', was released digitally and internationally by Universal Music on 18 August 2010, featuring the band's second single ''Religious'' as its lead track. ''Religious'' entered the Russian Hot 100 chart in November 2010 staying in the charts for over four months and receiving over 100,000 plays on Russian national radio, after which the track was successfully exported to the U.S. where it peaked at #28 in the

Billboard Magazine ''Billboard'' (stylized in lowercase since 2013) is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events and styles related to th ...

Club Play Chart in April, 2011. A third release, ''The Coliseum EP'', was released digitally on 3 November 2010, featuring lead single and video ''You Break Me Up''. Lead vocalist Andreas Öhrn and guitar player Ben Smith have since the launch of Gravitonas also taken up successful careers as songwriters and producers for other artists, including #1 hit singles in Japan for boy bands

Hey! Say! JUMP Hey! Say! JUMP (HSJ or JUMP) is an nine-member Japanese boy band under the Japanese talent agency Smile-Up (formerly known as Johnny & Associates). The group is split into two sub-groups: Hey! Say! BEST and Hey! Say! 7. In Japan they sold more ...

and

Kis-My-Ft2 is a six-member Japanese boy band under Starto Entertainment. They are known for their performances on roller skates. The group is named after one letter of each member's initials and after "the anecdote that tap dancer Gregory Hines kissed t ...

. Öhrn & Smith also wrote and produced the soundtrack for ''I Miss You'', a movie by Swedish director Anders Grönros which was released in September 2011 and peaked at #2 in the Swedish Box Office Chart. A collaboration track with Russian pop star Roma Kenga called ''Everybody Dance'' was released on 25 May 2011. This exclusive Swedish-Russian co-production was created through the joined forces of Universal Music Russia, Swedish record label Sofo Records, and Perpetuum Music. ''Everybody Dance'' entered the Russian Airplay Top 30 in July 2011 and was playlisted on the A-List of Eastern Europe's biggest radio network

Europa Plus Europa Plus () is a Russian commercial radio station. It is owned by the European Media Group and started broadcasting on 30 April 1990 in the Soviet Union. The station primarily plays hot AC and Top 40 music. Europa Plus spans across Russia, ...

. The single has since charted in a further six European countries. ''Everybody Dance'' entered the Billboard Club Chart Top 50 in the U.S. on 21 November 2011 and eventually peaked at #19 becoming Gravitonas' first U.S. Top 20 hit. A single and video called ''Lucky Star'' was released globally as a digital EP on 15 September 2011. The track was premiered live on ''Crimea Music Festival'', the biggest music festival in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

, broadcast from

Yalta Yalta (: ) is a resort town, resort city on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea. It serves as the administrative center of Yalta Municipality, one of the regions within Crimea. Yalta, along with the rest of Crime ...

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

on 8 September 2011 after which the track became a Top 20 hit single in five European countries, going all the way to #1 in

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

. A single and video called ''Call Your Name'' was released on 14 March 2012 followed by a six-track EP called ''Black Ceremony'' on 21 March. According to a message in 2015 sent by Alexander Bard himself on the Gravitonas

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fan page, he left the group and the music industry shortly after 2013 to focus on his philosophy career.https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10207502969556374&set=p.10207502969556374&type=3&theater In 2015, Andreas Öhrn posted a message indicating that the group had formed its own record company. The first single released was "My Chemical Breakdown" featuring Japanese rapper Gashima. In 2019, Japanese pop group

EXILE Exile or banishment is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons ...

released "Love of History", for which Öhrn was credited as one of the track's composers along with Christian Fast, Henrik Nordenback, and EXILE vocalist/lyricist Atsushi Satō.

Singles

References

External links

Official website

Fan website

Artist page at Facebook

Gravitonas Facebook Community Site

Artist page at Universal Music
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gravitonas Swedish electronic music groups Universal Music Group artists Musical groups from Stockholm