Alan Ellis

Building a devoted following through an instinctively hopeful and relaxed style of ambient music often featured on Spotify playlists like Ambient Chill (over 800,000 followers) and Deep Sleep (over 700,000 followers), Gunnar Johnsén is a Swedish producer and musician better known as Alan Ellis. Growing up in Härnösand, he spent his young years subconsciously soaking up his father’s music taste in the car and around the house. After encouragement from his family to take piano lessons, Gunnar soon discovered he could memorize pieces by ear instead of sight reading the music. This innate understanding also helped him to pick up the drums, which he played for 10 years in a punk band performing predominantly in his native Sweden, as well as touring in Canada. In 2016, Gunnar - as Alan Ellis - released the EPs Washed In Light and Our Precious Lives, as well as the album Morning Dew. Since then his music has accumulated well over 100 million total Spotify streams, with the track A Rising Sun gaining over 31 million plays by itself.