Jono El Grande is a sparky Norwegian composer whose music is as uncategorisable as it comes. But where his earlier album Fevergreens was obsessively in thrall to his eclectic influences, Zappa and Captain Beefheart, Neo Dada sounds much more confident, exuberant, artful and bloody-minded. This is intricate music, and the musicians sound as if they’re having a ball regardless of what anyone might think, rather like the classical equivalent of Millwall supporters. Despite bonkers titles such as Ballet Morbido in a Dozen Tiny Movements and Three Variations On a Mainstream Neurosis, Jono El Grande makes loud, clattering and unneurotic instrumental music, with the odd bit of cod-opera singing and Circulus-like medieval prog. Oslo City Suite also features some outstanding rock bassoon-playing by Embrik Snerte, another name to watch.

Original review here

Do we need a new dada? The answer this album poses is a resounding “maybe.” The music of Jono El Grande falls somewhere in the overlap of a Venn Diagram that includes Magma and the kind of semi-orchestral Frank Zappa you find on his early 1970s albums (200 Motels, Waka Jawaka, The Grand Wazoo, and the material recorded in the mid-seventies that ended up on Sleep Dirt and Studio Tan). The short review for Neo Dada is therefore easy: if you don’t like either of those references, you won’t like this. This album is a host of “Strictly Genteel” and “The Adventures of Gregory Peccary” references, and most of the solos sound ripped directly from “The Ocean is the Ultimate Solution.”

This album features some great tracks and some less great tracks, but given the ambition here the best way I can think of to explain why is to talk a little about what happens when you rub Zappa and Magma together, because the two don’t make quite as harmonious a union as you might expect, and not just because you’re piling one kind of difficult onto another. The Zappa-isms give a very distinct levity to the zeuhl aspects of Neo Dada, but the problem is that zeuhl itself isn’t unfunny. What makes it seem superficially grandiose and overbearing is that fact that zeuhl as an idea about music—and I’m not talking about how it sounds, since fans of Ruins and Magma and Dün and etc. will tell you how unalike these bands sound—is set-up as a foreign language (both literally, in terms of the created languages it often employs, and musically) that you have to decipher to get the humor. Or anger. Or pain. Or whatever. Zeuhl as an aesthetic form is like any approach to culture that asks you to step inside it and learn it from the inside out.

Now, there are people who don’t care to do that, and there are a lot of absolutely perfect reasons why you might not want to, starting with: why bother creating a new world when we barely have a grip on our own? Science fiction fans might have an answer for you, but, again: it just depends on what is your cup of tea, above and beyond whether you actually like zeuhl music—and here I do mean the way it sounds. But here’s why Zappa is entirely different: for all of his innovative approach to composition, Zappa was never really interested in depth. Or emotion. Aside from maybe “Watermelon in Easter Hay” and theoretically maybe “Sofa” I’m not sure there are many instances where even the pretty parts of his discography aren’t inordinately satisfied with how they explicitly mock what they themselves are—and even the two examples I listed above are meant to be bogus pomp as much as they are melancholic. In other words, Zappa’s music is all surface, all the time, and in that sense Zappa’s music is a very specific kind of pop music whereas Magma’s music, say, is very specifically not. There’s nothing to learn with Zappa; whether you like his music or not entirely depends on whether you think an insanely complex Ruth Underwood percussion solo wedged in the fleeting space between two rock riffs is just as funny a joke as Father Oblivion making pancakes with sperm. Or whether either of those things is a substantial commentary on rock music. It’s all punchlines, is the point, and you’re left to hope that it sounds interesting while doing that, and not in the “did you hear that shit that Terry Bozzio just played?” way. Unless you’re that kind of music fan. If you are, then check out Crack the Skye, or that new Korn album.

It’s hard to tell whether Jono El Grande is explicitly trying to merge these two ideas: the Zappa stuff is incredibly apparent—and at times, derivative—whereas the zeuhl stuff may well simply be a byproduct of his attempts to make the Zappa stuff not derivative. Either way, he does his best fusion on the title track, which rides a King Crimson slowcore riff in between Underwood-style percussion fills and Magma-style lyrics. It’s a brilliant little track that gets to have it several ways, and the lovely synth squiggles over the off-time mid-section are a gorgeous update to the section of the song where Zappa would normally have inserted a big-time slowed-down guitar solo. But check the other side: “Ballad Morbido in a Dozen Tiny Movements” and “Big Ben Over” just sound way too much like somebody trying to sound exactly like Zappa, and while neither is accompanied with the groans you might expect to be elicited from a musician in 2009 trying to sound exactly like Zappa in 1974 the extent to which you like these two tracks will depend entirely on the extent to which you like a track like “Big Swifty.”

Okay, but it’s more complicated than that, because why “Big Swifty”? This rock/jazz/orchestral stuff worked for Zappa when he was playing it with his small mid-seventies jazz rock group that featured stellar musicians like Underwood. But once he moved away from band-based recordings into session musician-laden studio-sheen stuff like what was supposed to be released on Läther his material went off the rails a bit. Jono El Grande thankfully avoids the overuse of directionless fretless bass tone that permeated Zappa’s late seventies work or the even stupider “reggae” stuff he did in the 1980s, but his work on Neo Dada inadvertently highlights the uneven nature of Zappa’s discography, especially when removed from the context of…Zappa’s discography. I.e. “Inca Roads” (or even better, the live “Inca Roads” from You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore 2) was and will always be better sounding and a better song than “Big Swifty,” or “The Adventures of Gregory Peccary.”

Now, I know I’m going on a lot about Zappa in a review not about Zappa but hang with me: it’s really amazing to me just how similar parts of this album sound to the types of compositions Zappa was pursuing early in his solo career—just check that guitar riff in “Olso Cody Suite” that starts up around 1:45; I wracked my head trying to figure out what track it was ripping off and then realized the answer was “most of them.” But with nothing as technically complex as “RDNZL” or “Approximate” or immediately gripping and finite as “Florentine Pogen” or “Andy” or rocking as “Zombie Woof” or “Shove it Right In” or even as pretty as “Peaches on Regalia” at least half of this album is taken up with the kind of bland, emotionless, snarky music that most Zappa fans, I think, will acknowledge that, amidst the sheer mess of work Zappa released in the 1970s, is secondary; it resembles the non-“RDNZL” tracks off of lesser albums like Studio Tan and Sleep Dirt which are not so much notable for themselves as they are for the way they complement, explain, and elaborate the better songs on better albums like One Size Fits All. Jono El Grande seems inordinately interested in the building blocks of Zappa’s mid-seventies style, but hasn’t really built much with them yet, I mean. And the fact that he hasn’t is reinforced by how much this material sounds like Zappa’s mid-seventies style. Etc.

So let’s talk about the other half of the album, because that’s what’s actually exciting. The rest of the songs on Neo Dada sound and don’t sound like Zappa; the deja vu normally accompanies a specific chord phrasing or riff moreso than the entirety of a song. “Your Mother Eats Like a Platipus,” for example, rides a string quartet brilliantly, a beautiful little string composition that is difficult without being obtuse. “Choco King” features Zappa-style mallet lines but everything else is a zeuhl bonanza; the violin treatments are fascinating, and the kazoo raunching in the background counteracts the plodding foreground. “Three Variations on a Mainstream Neurosis” also owes a lot to Magma, though the sax solo towards the end is all Zappa. But the contrast between the two is fascinating, as this thin reed warbles above an expansive and gloomy guitar grind. This type of material is much more original; it owes to the past, but it sounds very much like a new kind of these musics.

Neo Dada isn’t really hit or miss; it’s more hit or “meh.” The too-Zappa tracks are still interesting compositions; I just wish that he hadn’t worked so hard to get the production and arrangements to sound exactly like his source material. Those tracks are a bit too slick, and they add nothing new to musical vocabulary. I mean, it’s one thing to learn how to do somebody else’s thing really well, I guess; it’s quite another to be inspired by somebody else’s thing to do your own. Neo Dada (mostly) isn’t new. And the conclusion you might draw from the fact that it’s made me think so much about Zappa albums I haven’t listened to in over a decade is maybe the only subtext it has. Which is a shame, since what’s good here is really fun.

Mark Abraham :: 24 April 2009

Jono in NY.

Les om Jonos betraktinger vedr. kameraderiets fortrinn foran talentet i norsk kulturliv og unge undergrunnsstreberes simulerte opprør, om papiravisenes fremtid og om hvorfor det nye albumet Neo Dada er blitt så guddommelig som det har blitt!

Hipsterbloggen Smuglesning.no er Jono El Grandes mikrofonstativ i en drøy time i East Village, NY, April 12, 2009.

Neo Dada (LP)

Click on the picture, then add to cart, pay and get Neo Dada shipped right home!

Joachim Kwetzinsky

Pianist Joachim Kwetzinsky performs the piece “Cold & Empty”, the very first minutes of 2009.The composition is based on Jono El Grandes random improvisations on a midi keyboard. The music was then transcribed and quantized with the resolution of 16th notes, and eventually printed for Kwetzinskys excellent interpretation.

Klavéresset Joachim Kjelsaas Kwetzinsky fremfører “Cold & Empty”, de aller første minuttene i 2009. Komposisjonen er basert på Jono El Grandes tilfeldige improvisjoner på et midi keyboard. Musikken (ja, dette er også musikk, tro det eller ei) er deretter elektronisk transkribert, eller gjengitt til noter om du vil, og 16-delskvantifisert, det vil si forenklet og renskrevet til nærmeste 16-dels note.

Resultatet er deretter idiomatisert så godt som mulig, hvilket betyr bearbeidet for optimal (pianistisk) tolkning – noe datamaskiner som regel trenger litt ekstra menneskelig, musikkyndig hjelp til. Til slutt er verket skrevet ut på papir og fremført av den eminente konsertpianisten Joachim Kwetzinsky.

Høydepunktene fra konserten på Parkteatret torsdag 18. desember tidligere i år er nå i ferd med å bli mikset. Konserten ble spilt inn på 26 spor av den eminente Eyolf Dale, som for øvrig også har utført miksen av kommende studioalbum (ca. mars 2009). Vent i spenning for mer info!

Den utsøkte teknikeren og prisbelønte jazzmusikeren Eyolf Dale og undertegnede går igjennom verket “Variations on a Mainstream Neurosis” (tidligere kjent som “Disko Skridsko”). Det er i hovedsak lydinnstillingene til pålegg av cocktailpinne, T-Fordhorn og strykegnikk vi verifiserer.

Jeg forteller, på vei fra toalettet i Studioet til kontrollrommet, om visse meritter mellom Hvittingfoss og Skien. Vi skal klargjøre lyd på basstrommen.

“Da er det strykerne som skal klangsettes!”

Etter å ha fortapt seg i nettkonseptet Origos geniale opplegg ser El Grande-administrasjonen ingen grunn til å tviholde på den gamle wordpress-bloggen som i halvannet år har okkupert Jono El Grandes domener. Fra og med fredag 7. november 2008 flyttes alt offisielt El Grande-relatert sludder over hit til Origos sone El Grande Society. Dette betyr at domenene jonoelgrande.no, jonoelgrande.com og jono.no alle vil peke til nevnte smektende samfunn! Ahh, hvilket smektende samfunn!!!

PS: El Grande-relatert Facebook- og Underskog-info blir som før (i full blomstring), mens El Grande Society kontinuerlig vil poste viktige hendelser og evenementer parallellt i disse kanalene.

Neo Dada plays Zappa1 (Im The Slime)

Den fremste artisten i stallen til Jono El Grande Prod., Neo Dada, glimret med sitt umiskjennelige nærvær og sine gitarspastiske tolkninger av Zappakomposisjoner, søndag 2. nov 2008 på Cosmopolite på Soria Moria. Bildet viser gitarsoloparti på I’m The Slime (Over-Nite Sensation – 1973).

Jono El Grande & The Luxury Band ble endelig ferdige med siste innspillingsdag lørdag 25. oktober, 2008, etter å ha holdt det gående med jevne mellomrom siden januar d.å. Nå gjenstår en avsindig mikseseanse i november.

Hans Martin Austestad og Jono El Grande

Jono El Grande & The Luxury Band har spilt inn materiale komponert mellom 1994(!) og 2005. Komposisjonene har blitt fremført en rekke ganger fra 2005 – 2007, og rearrangert ytterligere for innspillingen.

Målet med 2009-albumet er ikke å gjengi komposisjonene slik de låter ved scenefremføring. Vårt forrige album Fevergreens (2003) var spilt inn slik, men på den nye platen har jeg gått helt og holdent inn for å utforske idélandskapet til hver minste lille kvarke er utstudert. Vår eminente og musikalske tekniker Eyolf Dale sa ved siste innspillingsdag at dette var det mest omfattende prosjektet han noengang hadde vært med på. Det var hinsides alt mente han. I løpet av innspillingen har for øvrig to musikere, henholdsvis pianist André Bongard og vokalist Bård Bratlie, sluttet i bandet, hvorpå jeg har måttet snuse rundt for å finne nye. Ingen lett oppgave, for å si det slik; partiturene på alle verkene rommer noen hundre sider med musikk der det er lite rom for repetisjoner av enkle 4/4-takter og tregrepsløp.

Og som om strukturen på verkene ikke skulle være komplekse nok: på hvert verk har vi spilt inn om lag 50 spor.

Instrumentene og lydene vi har brukt totalt består av følgende:

OVERORDNET INSTRUMENTBESETNING:
Vokal, gitar, tangenter, diverse treblås, perkusjon (inkl. melodisk og gjenstander som ellers tjener ikke-musikalske hensikter), trommer, bass og strykekvartett.

DETALJERT INTRUMENTBESENTING:
Metoder for bruk av vokal:
Nynning gjennom neseborene med rytmisk neseklyping med fingrene, stemme med rytmiske slag mot adamseplet, kontratenor vokal, bassvokal, tibetanskinspirert strupesang, harking, hosting, “Kakemonster”-bjeffing, hyling og kazoo (se også bilde av kazoo).

Gitarer og gitarlyder:
Gibson SG elektrisk gitar (vel å merke en svært god Epiphone-variant) og Cavatina nylonstrenggitar. Jeg har brukt ymse rørforsterkere, samt en liten, latterlig Peavey som ved riktig oppmikking gir den beste lyden idet jeg kjører den gjennom phaser-pedal. Jeg har som sagt brukt phaser, både i moderat nivå og på maksimalt (moderat i komp, noen steder i melodi og solopartier, maksimalt andre steder i melodi og solopartier) jeg har brukt delaypedal til å lage støylooper av mitt eget gitarspill, som blant annet ligger under solopartiet i Akt5, og jeg har lekt meg med bootleneck-teknikk uten å være kyndig på det området overhodet.

Tangenter:
Synth og elektrisk piano. Av lyder kan nevnes kirkeorgel, Fender Rhodes, diverse orgler (ofte med maksimal vibrato), moog, cembalo, honky tonk piano og en haug rene synthlyder jeg ikke husker hva het.

Diverse treblås:
Fagott og saksofoner, derav sopran-, tenor- og baritonsaksofon.

Perkusjon (inkl. melodisk og gjenstander som ellers tjener ikke-musikalske hensikter)):
Marimba, xylofon, tubular bells (rørklokker), kubjelle, claves, tamburin, temple blocks, andelokk (duck call), cocktailpinne av plast som holdes halvveis inne på en bordplate hvorpå man “plukker” delen utenfor bordet med fingeren, T-Fordhorn, sykkelbært.

Trommer:
Basstromme, skarp, hi-hat, ride, crash og gulvtam.

Bass:
Elektrisk bassgitar.

Strykevartett:

1. fiolin, 2. fiolin, bratsj og cello.

MEDVIRKENDE PÅ INNSPILLINGEN:
Jono El Grande – vokal, gitarer, synth, noe perkusjon og elektrisk støy.
Hans Martin Austestad – vokal
Bård Bratlie – vokal
Erik Løkra – saksofoner
Embrik Snerte – fagott
Terje Engen – trommer
Håkon Mørch Stene – perkusjon (inkl. melodisk)
Petter Sørlie Kragstad – tangenter og synthsolo på Big Ben Dover
André Bongard – tangenter
Eyolf Dale – synthpålegg på Dalbo Queen
Ida Kristine Hansen – 1. fiolin
Isa Caroline Holmesland – 2. fiolin
Gunnhild Lehnheer Nordahl – bratsj
Lisa Isabel Holstad – cello
Eivind Henjum – bass

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