Georg Kajanus is a composer and singer/songwriter. He is the great-grandson of Robert Kajanus: composer, conductor, confidant of Sibelius and founder of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.
Born in Trondheim, Norway, Kajanus moved with his mother and sister to Paris at the age of thirteen. It was there that he studied music and the classical guitar, as well as attending the Cité Universitaire’s flying school. The family then relocated to Canada where Kajanus worked as a stained glass window designer in Montreal.
After a yearlong journey through the Middle East and Europe, Kajanus moved to London, where he formed the folk/rock group, Eclection, whose other members included Kerrilee Male, Trevor Lucas, Michael Rosen and Gerry Conway. Eclection was one of the few British signings to the American label, Elektra Records and they released one album entitled ’Eclection’, which was a personal favorite of Elektra’s founder, Jac Holzman. Eclection toured the UK extensively and appeared with such acts as Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan at the Isle Of Wight Festival.
Five years later, Kajanus used the colorful night life of Paris to invent Sailor, his second and highly successful foray in the music world. Kajanus was the lead singer and songwriter for the band, which was best known for the hits, ’Glass Of Champagne’ and ’Girls, Girls, Girls’. Sailor was awarded numerous gold and silver records for its success in Europe and Australia.
Kajanus then left Sailor to experiment with electronic music with his new creation, DATA. The classically orientated title track of DATA’s first album, ’Opera Electronica’, was used as the theme music to the short film, ’Towers Of Babel’ (1981), which was directed by Jonathan Lewis and starred Anna Quayle and Ken Campbell. ’Towers Of Babel’ was nominated for a BAFTA award in 1982 and won the Silver Hugo Award for Best Short Film at the Chicago International Film Festival of the same year. Kajanus followed ’Opera Electronica’ with two more albums, ’2-Time’ (1983) and ’Elegant Machinery’ (1985). In 1986, Kajanus co-wrote & co-produced the album ’UME’ with renowned film composer Shigeru Umebayashi (’The House of Flying Daggers’, ’2046’ and ‘Hannibal Rising’).
After a painting sojourn in Mexico, Kajanus was persuaded to reform Sailor in 1990 and it went on to achieve further success in Europe. In the late nineties, Kajanus left the group again to form the poetic-techno duo Noir with Tim Dry (previously of Tik and Tok). Noir’s single ’Walking’ was used extensively in the Channel 4 television series, ’Feast’, an avant-garde culinary program directed by TV food maestro David Pritchard. ’Feast’ was also hosted by Noir.
Kajanus composed the music (with Henry Marsh) for the British TV series, ’The Kid’ (1986) and the soundtracks for two documentaries directed by German filmmaker Monika Treut: ’Didn’t Do It For Love’ (1997) and ’Gendernauts’ (1999).
In May 2006, ’KAJANUS’, the biography of Georg Kajanus written by James McCarraher and GK was published in the UK.
July 2006 saw the world premiere of ’Sailor, The Musical Journey’ at the Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline, Scotland. Written by Bill Blenman, the new musical is comprised entirely of Kajanus compositions and imaginatively taps into Kajanus early ’70s creation of sailors on shore leave and red light districts. The musical also features two new, previously unheard compositions by Kajanus.
Kajanus is now exploring his great-grandfather’s classical roots and mining his well-honed pop music sensibilities to create his latest opus, ’People Industry’, which is an unusual look at the extraordinary world of Homo Sapiens.
LATEST RELEASE NEWS: NOIR’s ’Strange Desire’ CD was released by Angel Air Records on the 3rd of September, 2007. Follow the link to order:
A re-working of ’A Glass of Champagne’ - called ’Jumping All Over The World’ - is now available as the title track on the new album by German mega-techno band, Scooter. Check out their web site at: http://www.scootertechno.com and listen at:
A dance cover version of ’La Cumbia’ by Cuba Club is now available on Amazon and iTunes. Follow the link:
Buy DATA CDs (’Opera Electronica+’, ’2-TiME&rsquo)
& ’KAJANUS (revealed)’ at the Official GEORG KAJANUS Web Site:
The Official ’PEOPLE INDUSTRY’ Web Site:
Watch ’Fallout’ from ’Opera Electronica+’, ’Walking’ by NOIR and other KAJANUS videos on Youtube:
Watch the rare video of ’Fallout’ Directed by David Rose on Youtube:
Watch Noir Videos on Youtube:
Watch Sailor Videos on the Marinero Youtube Site:
James McCarraher’s ’KAJANUS’ Biog Web Site:
The Sailor Fan Club Web Site Featuring ’Sailor The Musical Journey’:
