Georg Kajanus
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Georg Kajanus (Georg Johan Tchegodaieff Kajanus) is a composer and singer/songwriter. He is the son of Prince Paul Tchegodaieff of Russia and Johanna Kajanus, the award-winning Finnish/Norwegian sculptress (Bronze Medal for Sculpture at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937)). He is the great-grandson of Robert Kajanus: composer, conductor, confidant of Sibelius and founder of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. He is the brother of actress and film-maker Eva Norvind and the uncle to Mexican theater and television actress, Nailea Norvind.
Born Prince Georg Johan Tchegodaieff, in Trondheim, Norway, 9 February 1946, 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 year long 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. Election 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).
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 also composed the music (with Henry Marsh) for the British TV series, 'The Kid' (1986) starring Steve Fairnie and the soundtracks for two documentaries directed by German filmmaker Monika Treut: 'Didn't Do It For Love' (1997) and 'Gendernauts' (1999).
July 2006 saw the world premiere of ‘Sailor, The Musical Journey’ at the Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline, Scotland. Written by Bill Blenman, the new musical was comprised entirely of Kajanus compositions and imaginatively taped into Kajanus’ early ‘70’s creation of sailors on shore leave and red light districts. The musical also featured 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, which is an unusual look at the extraordinary world of Homo Sapiens.
