Jonti
# Jonti

Jonti Danilewitz (born 1986 or 1987), known mononymously as Jonti, is a South African-Australian electronic and alternative hip hop record producer, composer and songwriter. He is signed to Stones Throw Records and Future Classic. He was also a touring member of the Avalanches.

## Biography

Danilewitz was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. His family relocated to Sydney, where he attended Masada College, Sydney in 1999. By 2009, he fronted the Sydney-based group Danimals, which were working at Mark Ronson's The Lab to write and record material. Danilewitz' older brother Leron was their talent manager. One of the tracks, "Fox", was used for a national advertising campaign. Danimals line-up in mid-2010 included James Domeyko, Moses MacRae and Julian Sudek on drums and Jaie Gonzalez on bass guitar. Due to the United States yoghurt of the same name they changed to Djanimals.

As Jonti Danimal, on keyboards, he was also a member of Sherlock's Daughter, an indie, electronic six-piece alongside Liam Flanagan on bass guitar, Tanya Horo on vocals, guitar and keyboards, Timothy Maybury on guitar, Graeme Pillemer and William Russell on drums. That group formed in 2007 by Horo, Maybury and Pillemer with Jonti joining later. They recorded their debut album, Hunter, during 2010 with sessions at Watermusic Studios, Hoboken. It was issued in 2012 via Gaga Digi.

Danilewitz was performing as Jonti by November 2012. His debut album, Twirligig, had appeared a year earlier in October 2011. AllMusic's David Jeffries rated it four-out-of-five stars, who explained "this genre-borrowing hangs together effortlessly with Jonti's unique voice as its anchor, so let your laptop-hovering friends worry about the complex constructions while you enjoy Twirligig's simple pleasures".

In 2014, Jonti performed a cover of the Avalanches debut album, Since I Left You, at Vivid LIVE and the Melbourne International Arts Festival. In 2016, he appeared on their album Wildflowers later becoming their touring guitarist.

His second album, Tokorats, was released in 2017. Jeffries' colleague David Simpson gave it three-and-a-half because "not all of his juxtapositions or segues seem to make sense, and the album seems a bit overstuffed, but Jonti's ambition and creativity are undeniably admirable, and the entire album is a delightfully strange trip".

## Discography

### Studio albums

| Title | Details |
| - | - |
| Twirligig | Release date: 10 October 2011 Label: Mistletone (MIST053) / Stones Throw Formats: CD, LP, digital download |
| Tokorats | Release date: 3 November 2017 Label: Future Classic / Stones Throw Formats: CD, digital download, streaming |

### Demos

| Title | Details |
| - | - |
| Sine & Moon | Release date: 2012 (US) Label: Stones Throw Records (STH2290) Formats: LP, digital download |

### Singles

| Title | Year | Album |
| - | - | - |
| "Firework Spraying Moon" | 2011 | Twirlgig |
| "Saturday Night" | 2012 | Sine & Moon |
| "Scrood" | 2017 | non album singles |
| "Rain" | 2017 | non album singles |
| "Sleeping and Falling" | 2017 | Tokorats |
| "Staring Window" | 2017 | Tokorats |

## Awards

### AIR Awards

The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known informally as AIR Awards) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's Independent Music sector.

| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
| - | - | - | - |
| AIR Awards of 2012 | Twirlgig | Best Independent Dance/Electronic Album | Nominated |
