JONO EL GRANDE
Neo Dada
RCD2084
Rune Grammofon 2009
07 Tracks. 42mins21secs

Buy: CD | LP | MP3 | iTunes
Stream: Soptify

Jono El Grande is something of an oddball. Jon Andreas Håtun as he is known to his parents landed on Rune Grammofon six years ago with Fevergreen, a rather strange album which appears to fearlessly blend prog rock, pop, orchestral film music and jazz into one hell of a melting pot. Heading a formation of nine musicians, Jono El Grande brought down boundaries that no-one, with the exception of a rare few, ever considered could even exist.

With Neo Dada, Håtun and his colourful big band revive their shambolic fanfare and progress further into prog-jazz-watnot land, relentlessly kicking the ghost of Zappa out of the way to make way for their own exotic vision. Continue Reading »

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Money Will Ruin Everything: The Second Edition
RCD2072
Rune Grammofon 2009
25 Tracks. 152mins42secs

Buy: CD

‘It’s hard work to sell Rune CD outside of a small group of freaks’. To celebrate its first five years of activity, Norwegian label Rune Grammofon issued Money Will Ruin Everything, a beautiful limited collection documenting the label’s first few years spent charting the outer reaches of the music industry, spread over two CDs and presented with a book designed by Kim Hiorthøy. Fast forward five years and a few months, and it is time for label owner Rune Kristoffersen to look back once again and take stock of one of the most eclectic and forward-thinking catalogue around. And once again, Kim Hiorthøy, who is still single-handedly responsible for the visual identity of the label, including its occasional advertising, has designed a beautiful artefact, which collects not only the two CDs of this second edition of Money Will Ruin Everything, introduced by Geoff Travis and Robert Fricke, but also essays by Wire collaborator Rob Young and design consultant Adrian Shaughnessy, photographs and artwork reproductions. Continue Reading »