Joel Eriksson is an accomplished music producer from Sweden. He has gained recognition as a composer of game, film and pop music. Born in the late 1970s, he began to make music at a young age and also developed a love of computer games.
Joel Eriksson began to work on music for games early in his career. In 2000, he made the music for the acclaimed EA game, Battlefield 1942. This innovative WWII themed multiplayer game gained cult and commercial success, spawning a much loved series. The theme song is an iconic piece of music. It has been covered by orchestras and fans all over the world and appears in the sequels of the game franchise. Away from games, Eriksson has made music for films and TV. In 2006, he scored the music for the Finnish-Swedish feature film, 7 miljonärer.
In parallel, inspired by a love of Funk and groovy sounds, Joel Eriksson helped to start the Gonkyburg movement with Quant. He began to release records as Jol, with singles for the innovative Swedish Dot label in 2000. The Moody Aow album followed for the Danish April Records imprint in 2003 and The Life in the sun Ep for DNM in 2006. Joel met Erik Niklasson from Plej and they began to create songs as Yuki-Jobo. One of the songs, Supernova Sky, featured acclaimed Swedish-Japanese singer Yukimi Nagano (later of Little Dragon fame). Soon after, Joel and Erik set their sights on pop stardom as The Similou. In 2004, the duo had a pop hit in the shape of All This Love, which was released on Sony in the UK, and climbed the charts in the UK, Australia and in Sweden. The Similou toured extensively in Sweden and were the support act for the Backstreet Boys in Stockholm at Globen. Away from The Similou, Eriksson co-wrote hit songs for Japanese boy band Arashi.
Eriksson has continued to compose and produce music to this day. By his own admissions, he has now grown up and in 2018 built his own studio. In 2021, he decided to celebrate twenty years since the original Battlefield 1942 theme, by recording a new version. He is currently working on JOL tracks, video creation and game projects and wishes to create more songs and soundtracks in the future.
Written by Jon Freer
LATEST RELEASE:
Lost in this game (EDM – Banger)
Can the stupidity of mankind be confirmed?
LATEST RELEASE:
Battlefield 1942 Theme Intro
New recording of the energetic orchestral piece that should shape the sound for the Battlefield franchise.
JOL – Himari (Official Video)
In JOL’s music video Himari a multitude of emotions intertwine. Something frightening and provocative underlies the visuals of a young woman in a dreamy adventure.
Also check and heart it on Spotify
JOL – Moonshine Error
Released on Woodwork Recordings Oct 1 – 2021. For more info about the release:
https://woodworkrecordings.com/album/majestik-func
A hundred years has passed since making the music for Battlefield 1942. The theme song has taken many shapes. In 2042 it’s a cool Icelandic wind from Hildur Guðnadóttir and Sam Slater.
Announcing a new version of the battlefield 1942 theme. It’s a thankyou to everyone who liked it, played it, or reached out to me during the last 20 years. If you wish to reach out, you could send a soundcloud message!
Kärlek, Love och Ha det så bra!
Divine Fortune - Walls of Marble
Dark King Main Theme
film and tvc works
Working with the feature film “7 millionaires” with some of the top actors of Sweden was a real thrill. During the years I have also had the opportunity to work with different TVC productions and corporate film productions. I had an extensive collaboration with the music house Syn Audio in Japan, why some of the works can be heard on Japanese productions. Some of the Swedish film companies I’ve worked with are Tre Vänner, STARK Film and Meindbender.
Various Game Projects
This is a collection of tracks that I’ve made over the recent years. I’m proud of these colorful tracks that have a wide variety of styles. Feel free to check them out on my soundcloud page.
Battlefield 1942 Originals
Thank you and deep bows to all who made covers and to the different orchestras performing this piece.
Lifty!
Sound design and music for the Australian game maker mastermind, Andrew Daniel.
Kung Fury: Street Rage
I was happy to get the opportunity to work with “Hello There” game company and go all in 80’s working with this title. I made some music tracks and the sound design in the game. They also used some tracks from Mitch Murder.
Kung Fury: Street Rage
Kosmopolska
This was the first game I made music for. We used a pretty old synthesizer (Roland JV-1080 with the orchestral expansion.) The game is a Swedish production and was released in 1997. A kind of space puzzle adventure with a rather deep story to it.
The Similou
The Similou was formed in 2001 by Joel Eriksson and Erik Niklasson. All This Love climbed the charts in the UK, Australia and Sweden and was signed to Sony’s Direction Records and U.K.’s Backyard Recordings in June 2006.
All This Love climbed the charts in the UK, Australia and Sweden and was signed to Sony’s Direction Records and U.K.’s Backyard Recordings in June 2006.
WILD BEASts
Wild Beasts was the first music video by The Similou
Rainbow Stalin
Someone misspelled Rainbow Stylin’ with Rainbow Stalin on a forum and kicked off a new wave of popularity for the song.
LADYKILLERS liVE ON TRACKS
Ladykillers live performance by The Similou on SVT Tracks.
JOL
Here are some early funky tracks from the beginning of the century. Back then we had a thing going on called Gonkyburg. If you want to know more about Gonkyburg please head to Jon Freers in depth article “The Gonkyburg Story”.
Please don’t copy music from this website and upload somewhere else. The rights of the music might be owned by different companies.