| Country | Norway |
|---|
| Occupation | Composer, Performer |
|---|
| Categories | Aleatoric, Classical, Contemporary, Fusion, Jazz-Rock, Klezmer, Other, Rock and Roll |
|---|
Jon Andreas Haatun / Jono El Grande is an autodidactic Norwegian composer, band leader, guitarist and conductor. He cites as his major sources of influence Captain Beefheart, '60s Frank Zappa, King Crimson, Igor Stravinsky and Art Rock. Jono El Grande claims that his extreme mixture of genres and timbres is a result of his musical vision: moving away from the traditional concept of 'music as a result of social processes'.
Although Jono El Grande is enjoying modest growth on the European avant-garde scene, he is most well known in his own country for his eccentric and amusing performance art/dada-inspired live shows. In 2000 he formed The Jono El Grande Orchestra, renamed Jono El Grande & The Luxury Band in 2005.
Jono El Grande has released three albums, “Utopian Dances” (Krusedull Prod. 1999), “Fevergreens” (Rune Grammofon, 2003) and “Neo Dada” (Rune Grammofon - 2009) in addition to contribute with compositions on other projects (both Rune Grammofons anniversary albums “Money Will Ruin Everything 1 & 2” and on “Wire Tapper #21”, the avant-garde music magazine The Wire’s 21st edition of their CD series). Jono El Grande served as festival composer for Happy Days 2007, presented by Ny Musikk, the Norwegian section of ISCM – International Society For Contemporary Music. He is a member of Norwegian Society Of Composers. He is also an active article writer for major Norwegian newspapers such as Aftenposten and Morgenbladet.
He will release his 4th album in Dec 2010.
