About

About me

I’m Kjell-Arne Karlsson, a composer from Sweden. I’ve been writing music since 1985, in one form or another — first with pen and paper and traditional instruments, and now, on this project, also with the help of AI tools that let me keep composing after my hands and my thinking stopped moving the way they used to.

About my condition

In 2025 I had a stroke, and I was also treated for cancer. What’s stayed with me since is brain fatigue — a tiredness sleep doesn’t fix, that creeps in after too much noise, too much to keep track of, too much happening at once — and apraxia, where a movement my mind has already decided on suddenly takes real effort to carry out. Neither is visible from the outside. Both have changed how I work, how I think, and how I listen.

I don’t write about this to explain myself, but because it’s the ground this whole project grows out of. The slowness in this music isn’t a style choice — it’s closer to how my days actually move now.

About this project

Brain Rest Audio is a two-year project in ambient and drone music, composed while living with brain fatigue and apraxia. It’s the English companion to my Swedish site, Kjells Teori, where the same project also includes fugue, experimental, and short Micro-Paus pieces. Here, the focus stays narrow: slow, layered sound, made without hurry, meant to rest a tired mind rather than ask anything of it.

The personal reflections shared on this site describe my own experience only. They are not medical advice and are not a substitute for guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.