Born in Tel Aviv, on 31st August 1951. After completing his studies at Agricultural College (1965-1969) and performing his military service (1969 1972) he settled in Sweden in 1973. In 1977-1978 he studied musicology at Stockholm University and in 1978-1983 studied composition at the State College of Music in Stockholm, where he was taught by Gunnar Bucht and Brian Ferneyhough. Since 1976 he has been playing saxophones, clarinets, percussion and electronics in the Lokomotiv Konkret music group, of which he is the leader. He has taken part in radio recordings and concerts in Europe and the USA.
Dror Feiler, with his ardent sense of vocation, must rank as Sweden’s leading improviser, and he campaigns for equality of status between this and pre-composed music. “We cannot help noticing how composing practice, with all its history, has taken us back to the origins of all music: improvisation. Improvisation can be interpreted as an instinctive act of trying to achieve emancipation in a bureaucratic, technocratic society. A society creating a body of artists which to a great extent is a body of fellow travellers and only in exceptional cases a body of resistance fighters, resistance being the most essential material for creating the art of self-defence which is imperative in the present-day situation. My music springs from individual energy mobilised by a collective idea.“
Parallel to his activities with Lokomotiv Konkret, he has since the end of the 1970s composed upwards of 30 works for various combinations of instruments, ranging from orchestral music to solo pieces, from electronic music to ballet music. Often he depicts, fortissimo and at great length, a violent struggle, but concerning Maavak (1981) he says: “Maavak does not describe a struggle, it is the struggle.“ Many of his titles provide excellent clues to their music: Splitter (Schrapnel) (1978) for double bass clarinet and two tape recorders, Brand (Fire) (1979-1981), an improvisation for orchestra, Dödsmässa över 70-talet (Requiem for the Seventies) (1979-1980), for soloists and orchestra, Stalingrad (1981-1982), improvisation for soloists and orchestra, Barrikad (1981-1982) for amplified piano, Written in Salt (1982-1983) for ten percussionists, Slå en röd kil i det vita blocket (Knock a Red Wedge into the White Block) (1981-1984) for large orchestra, Schlafbrand (1985) for organ and percussion (“Dedicated to all Jews and Communists Murdered during the Second World War“), Tändstickorna (The Matches) (1985) for two percussionists, two electric guitars and soprano saxophone, Golà (1986) for organ (“Dedicated to all Migrant Workers in Europe“), Låt miljonärerna gå nakna (Let the Millionaires go Naked) (1987) for four electric guitars, two sets of drums and tenor sax, Ni är döda (You’re Dead) (1987) for two trombones, two electric guitars, two amplified cellos and a set of drums. SJ