Jens Johansson is one hard-working dude. He's like the Swedish and keyboard version of Dave Grohl, having appeared on over 50 albums over his 30-or-so year career. He appears on a lot of prog and power metal albums and is probably best known for his work with Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen in the 80s and Finnish power metal band Stratovarius since 1995. He is clearly influenced by the classic rock and fusion keyboardists/organists of the 70s as you'll hear below, but he worked up some pretty formidable chops to be able to trade solos with the likes of Yngwie, Michael Romeo, Mike Stern, Shawn Lane and Ron Jarzombek to name a few of the shredders I've heard him recorded with. Bonus points go to him for being a computer programmer!
The two solo albums that I have by Jens are drastically different. The latter, entitled The Last Viking, is pretty straight-ahead Euro power metal, similar to his band Stratovarius. The earlier, and preferable to me, is Fission, a prog fusion instrumental album from which the below song comes. It's a pretty standard jazz form, setting up the feel with an intro that adds parts until the head played by solo keyboard. The first statement of the bridge section is just kind of a melody-less spacey feel section, but when it returns later, the melody is played by guitarist Mike Stern and then subsequently between each solo. The solos are pretty impressive, and each very different. It starts with Jens, followed by Stern's usual lyrical, vocal-like phrasing and then Shawn Lane, who is maybe a bit out of control, but he sure can pick fast. The drums (played by Anders Johansson, Jens' brother) are super busy in this tune, and I should mention that it's in a tricky 6+7 time signature. Enjoy Swedish progressive fusion metal... as though you don't everyday.
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