Jens Linell is a Nordic folk drummer and percussionist born in Östersund, Sweden in 1982. His father — himself a musician — first put drumsticks in his hands when Jens was seven, and the connection to Scandinavian folk music took hold early.
As a teenager he spent three formative years at Västanå Teater in Värmland, one of Sweden's most celebrated folk music institutions. He later travelled to Havana, Cuba, to study Afro-Cuban rhythmic traditions — an experience that reshaped his understanding of rhythm as language. Back in Scandinavia, he came under the mentorship of Björn Tollin, a master of the Nordic tambourine, an instrument that would become central to his playing.
Jens studied at the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg before continuing at the Ole Bull Academy in Voss, Norway — the foremost institution for Norwegian folk music. Since becoming a freelance musician in 2006, he has collaborated with ensembles including SVER, Mæd Luggumt, GKN5, Triller, and the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra.
"I want to step out of the role as a drummer — the timekeeper — and to just follow the melody. Wherever it goes."
That instinct — to listen first and respond intuitively — defines his contribution to Nordic music: a percussionist whose drumming serves the music rather than marks time.