Jono El Grande isn’t of Latin or Hispanic descent. Jon Andreas Hatun, the Norwegian Jon Andreas Hatun, would struggle to choose a more bizarre name under which to release music. He couldn’t have chosen a better moniker, considering the nature of his songs. Hatun is a comedian and a performer who subverts conventions, whether in a live-slapstic-show or studio setting. The levity that El Grande brings to others may cause them to be alienated. Hatun, a self-taught guitarist and composer, seems to have assimilated the left-field rock tendencies of Frank Zappa as well as the compositional styles and 20th-century giants (Stravinsky is a known influence). Although “prog” music has always accepted and incorporated ideas from innovative composers, Hatun does not hear any tropical sounds, throat singing or laryngeal drumming in complex, shifting meters. Jono El Grande manages his small orchestra with ease, despite the Neo Dada’s genre-hopping nature. http://www.tinymixtapes.com
