Biography
Georg Kajanus is a Norwegian composer, singer/songwriter and lyricist, best known for writing the hits A Glass of Champagne and Girls Girls Girls for his band Sailor. In total, Kajanus' compositions have gone to the top of the UK, European and Australian charts 28 times in the 1970s, the 1990s and in 2008. After having lived in Trondheim, St Tropez, Paris and Montreal, Kajanus moved to London in the late 1960s, where he formed the folk/rock group, Eclection, which was one of the few British signings to the American label, Elektra Records. Five years later, Kajanus used his youthful experiences of 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. Under Kajanus' leadership, Sailor released five albums and was awarded numerous gold and silver records for its success in the UK, Europe and Australia. Kajanus then left Sailor to form the electronica group, DATA, with vocalists Francesca ("Frankie") and Phillipa ("Phil") Boulter. 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 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. DATA released two more albums, the experimental 2-TiME (1983) and Elegant Machinery (1985). Living Inside Me from the 2-TiME album became a major hit in the 1980's club scene in the USA. Opera Electronica and 2-TiME were re-released by Angel Air Records in 2017. In the mid 1980s, Kajanus continued his experimentation with electronic music, collaborating with Henry Marsh of Sailor on the short-lived, unconventional combo called ...And The Mamluks, which achieved some nightclub success in the USA with the Razormaid remix of the track, Hassan. The Hammer and the Heart by ...And The Mamluks was released by Angel Air Records in 2018. Kajanus reformed Sailor in 1990 and the band went on to achieve further success in Europe, releasing two albums: Sailor and Street Lamp, again penned by Kajanus, on BMG-Ariola and touring extensively. In the late 1990s, Kajanus left Sailor again to form the poetic-techno duo Noir with Tim Dry. Noir's single Walking was used extensively in the Channel 4 TV series, Feast, an avant-garde culinary program. Noir's Strange Desire CD was released on Angel Air Records in 2007. Kajanus composed the soundtracks for two documentaries directed by award-winning German filmmaker Monika Treut: Didn't Do It For Love (1997) and Gendernauts (1999). His compositions, A Glass of Champagne and Girls Girls Girls have featured in many movies and TV shows over the years, as well as TV commercial campaigns (Marks & Spencer, Priceline - Australia). An early composition by Kajanus called Flying Machine was featured in a worldwide ad campaign for Western Union in 2019. Kajanus is working on three projects at the moment: 1. Sailor, a musical drama for stage and screen that contains a unique perspective on life, revenge, violence and love, which is set in the ruins of post-World War II Marseille. The musical features some early Sailor compositions as well as new material. 2. The classical musical People Industry, which is an intriguing look at the extraordinary world of Homo Sapiens, using all new vocal and orchestral compositions by Kajanus. 3. Silver Tongued Heroes, an electro-techno musical that features the music of DATA.
