Georg Johan Tjegodiev
r Tchegodaieff
R, or r, is the eighteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ar'' (pronounced ), plural ''ars'', or in Irela ...
Kajanus (born 9 February 1946) is a Norwegian composer and
pop music
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former descri ...
ian, best known as the lead singer and songwriter of the British pop group
Sailor
A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship.
The profession of the s ...
.
Early years
Kajanus was born in
Trondheim
Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
, to Prince Pavel
lso PauloTjegodiev of
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
and Johanna Kajanus, a
French-
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
sculptress
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable s ...
, bronze medal winner for sculpture at the
, and granddaughter of
Robert Kajanus
Robert Kajanus (2 December 1856 – 6 July 1933) was a Finnish conductor, composer, and teacher. In 1882, he founded the Helsinki Orchestral Society, Finland's first professional orchestra. As a conductor, he was also a notable champion and in ...
, the Finnish composer, conductor, champion of
Sibelius
Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often ...
and founder of the
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (in Finnish: ; in Swedish: ; literal English translation: Helsinki City Orchestra; commonly abbreviated as HPO) is an orchestra based in Helsinki, Finland. Founded in 1882 by Robert Kajanus, the Philharmonic ...
. He is the brother of the late actress and film-maker
Eva Norvind and the uncle to Mexican theater and television actress
Nailea Norvind
Nailea Norvind (born 16 February 1970) is a Mexican theater, television and film actress.
She appeared in the critically acclaimed 1987 film ''Gaby: A True Story''. She also lent her voice to play Princess Kida in the Spanish dubbing of ''Atla ...
.
[Sailor - Georg Kajanus](_blank)
/ref>
/ref>[James McCarraher and Georg Kajanus, ''Kajanus: The Definitive Biography of Composer Georg Tchegodaieff Kajanus'', ]
Kajanus moved with his mother and sister to Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
at the age of twelve where he studied music and classical guitar, as well as attending the Cité Universitaire’s flying school. The family then relocated to Montreal, Quebec
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...
, Canada, where Kajanus worked as a stained-glass window designer.
Early musical career
Kajanus was a member of UK-based folk rock
Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers s ...
band Eclection
Eclection were a British-based folk rock band, originally formed in 1967 in London by Norwegian-born Georg Kajanus (then known as Georg Hultgreen), Canadian Michael Rosen, Australians Trevor Lucas and Kerrilee Male, and Briton Gerry Conway. The ...
, who released a self-titled album in 1968 and wrote Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...
's single " Flying Machine" (1971).
Kajanus and Phil Pickett
Philip Stuart Pickett (born 19 November 1946) is an English songwriter, musician, vocal arranger, producer and artist manager.
He is principally known as a songwriter and musician and for co-writing and recording " Karma Chameleon", one of the ...
, who had been acquainted for some time, collaborated on an album, ''Hi Ho Silver!'' (1972), as Kajanus/Pickett. Deciding to form a group, tentatively named KP Packet, Kajanus and Pickett enlisted drummer and percussionist Grant Serpell
Stephen Grant Serpell (born 4 February 1944) is a British drummer. He was a member of several bands during the 1960s and 1970s, including Affinity and Sailor.
Career
While studying for a degree in Chemistry from the University of Sussex, Serpel ...
(Affinity
Affinity may refer to:
Commerce, finance and law
* Affinity (law), kinship by marriage
* Affinity analysis, a market research and business management technique
* Affinity Credit Union, a Saskatchewan-based credit union
* Affinity Equity Par ...
), and keyboard player and guitarist Henry Marsh (Gringo). In 1973, the foursome made their first recordings in a small studio in North London. Most of this material was not released at the time, but three demos are featured in Sailor's ''Buried Treasure'' 2-CD box set (2006).[Sailor Albums - Buried Treasure](_blank)
/ref>
Sailor
Kajanus had developed a musical theater
Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movemen ...
concept, ''Red Light Review'', based on his memories of being a young man in places like Pigalle in Paris's red-light district. Encouraged by Grant Serpell to rework this material as pop songs, Kajanus devised the concept for Sailor
A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship.
The profession of the s ...
.[James McCarraher, ''A Glass of Champagne: The Official Sailor Story'', ][Sailor: Biography](_blank)
/ref>
Sailor signed to Epic Records-CBS Records CBS Records may refer to:
* CBS Records or CBS/Sony, former name of Sony Music, a global record company
* CBS Records International, label for Columbia Records recordings released outside North America from 1962 to 1990
* CBS Records (2006), founde ...
and between 1974 and 1978 released five albums with Kajanus: ''Sailor'', ''Trouble'', ''The Third Step'', ''Checkpoint'' (without Pickett) and ''Hideaway''. Kajanus was the lead singer, guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
ist and, for the first three albums, the sole songwriter for the band, penning its two major hits, "A Glass of Champagne" and "Girls, Girls, Girls". Kajanus then left Sailor, leaving Pickett as the creative force behind their next album, ''Dressed for Drowning''.
DATA and afterwards
After leaving Sailor in 1978, Kajanus began to experiment with electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...
, forming DATA
In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete Value_(semiotics), values that convey information, describing quantity, qualitative property, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of sy ...
with Frankie and Phil Boulter. The classical-oriented title track of DATA’s first album, ''Opera Electronica'', was the theme music to the short film, ''Towers of Babel'' (1981). DATA then followed with two more studio albums, ''2-TiME'' (1983) and ''Elegant Machinery'' (1985).
Shortly after DATA disbanded, Kajanus formed Fatima and the Mamluks with Henry Marsh. They recorded only four songs, with two being released on a Razormaid! anthology on vinyl, ''Razormaid: The Epilogue: Back to Basics'' (1985). Kajanus and Marsh also collaborated on the soundtrack for the British TV series, ''The Kid'' (1986), starring actor/singer Steve Fairnie.
He worked with the Japanese composer and musician Shigeru Umebayashi
(born February 19, 1951) is a Japanese composer.
Once the leader and bass player of Japan's new wave rock band EX, composer Shigeru Umebayashi began scoring films in 1985 when the band broke up. He has more than 30 Japanese and Chinese film sc ...
, co-writing and producing songs for his album, ''Ume'' (1988).
Sailor again
In 1989, Kajanus reunited with Henry Marsh and Phil Pickett to write and record some new material. This was not released at the time, but three songs are featured in Sailor's ''Buried Treasure'' 2-CD box set (2006).
Kajanus, Marsh, Pickett and Grant Serpell reformed Sailor in 1990. The group recorded two albums, ''Sailor'' (1991) and ''Street Lamp'' (1992), with Kajanus once again writing and arranging all the material. They achieved further chart success in continental Europe with singles such as "La Cumbia" and "The Secretary".
Noir
In the late nineties, Kajanus formed the "poetic-techno" duo Noir with Tim Dry
Tim Dry (born 9 January 1952) is a mime artist, writer, photographic artist, musician and actor, best known for appearing in ''Return of the Jedi'' and the cult sci-fi/horror film ''Xtro''. Tim was a member of the duo Tik and Tok, that popula ...
(previously of Tik and Tok
Tik and Tok are the robotic mime and music duo of Tim Dry and Sean Crawford. They began performing together with Shock, a rock/mime/burlesque/music troupe in the early 1980s with Barbie Wilde, Robert Pereno, L.A. Richards and Carole Caplin.
...
). Noir’s single "Walking" was used extensively in the 1997 Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
television series ''Feast'', an avant-garde culinary program directed by TV food maestro David Pritchard. ''Feast'' was hosted by Noir and also starred French TV chef Jean Christophe Novelli.["Interview with Georg Kajanus", ''Get Ready to ROCK!''](_blank)
/ref>
Noir's album ''Strange Desire'', recorded in 1995, was eventually released on Angel Air
Angel Airlines, trading as Angel Air, was an airline based in Bangkok, Thailand, which was operational between 1998 and 2003.
Destinations
Over the years, Angel Airlines flew to the following destinations:
Thailand
* Bangkok — Don Mueang In ...
Records in 2007.
Other projects
Kajanus composed the soundtracks for two documentaries directed by German filmmaker Monika Treut
Monika Treut (born April 6, 1954, in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) is a German filmmaker. She made her feature film debut with Seduction: The Cruel Woman (co-directed by Elfi Mikesch), a film that explores sadomasochistic se ...
: ''Didn't Do It for Love'' (1997) and the award-winning ''Gendernauts
''Gendernauts: A Journey Through Shifting Identities'' is a 1999 film by Monika Treut featuring Sandy Stone, Texas Tomboy, Susan Stryker, and Hida Viloria. It shows us a group of artists in San Francisco who live between the poles of convention ...
'' (1999).
In 2008, Kajanus began working with Roberto Trippini and Barbie Wilde on a new version of the ''Sailor'' musical - an update of his original ''Red Light Review'' concept - which he describes as "a bittersweet musical about two people searching for love in the ruins of post-War Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...
".["Sailor Musical - Background"](_blank)
/ref>
Kajanus's other current musical project is ''People Industry'', which he describes as "an exuberant, musical exploration of the human journey."
References
External links
*
Georg Kajanus Web Site
''Sailor: A Musical in Development''
Sailor Club
Kajanus videos at youtube.com
Georg Kajanus at Myspace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kajanus, Georg
1946 births
Living people
Musicians from Trondheim
Norwegian composers
Norwegian male composers
Norwegian songwriters
Norwegian emigrants to France
Norwegian emigrants to Canada
Norwegian emigrants to the United Kingdom
Norwegian people of Russian descent
Norwegian people of Finnish descent
Norwegian people of French descent
Norwegian male singers
Norwegian guitarists
Norwegian rock guitarists
Norwegian rock singers
Lead guitarists