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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
New York's violinist
Dave Soldier, a founding member of the renown Soldier String Quartet, ventured
into popular music in eccentric manners. First he penned Smut (1994),
a modern setting of medieval texts, with alien vocals and dissonant
arrangements that were sometimes reminiscent of
Diamanda Galas,
Robert Wyatt,
Captain Beefheart and even
Karlheinz Stockhausen.
The Kropotkins (1996) were a group (fiddle/banjo, drums and vocals)
formed with vocalist Lorette Velvette and rock musicians
to deconstruct the Delta blues.
She's Lightning When She Smiles (1996) did the same with a cast
that included his quartet, jazz musicians and blues singers.
Ice-9 Ballads (2001) is the soundtrack for a Kurt Vonnegut book.
The Tangerine Awkestra (2000) is a vocal ensemble of Brooklyn schoolchildren performing free improvisation.
His most celebrated creation,
the Thai Elephant Orchestra, is an ensemble of elephants playing custom-made
large instruments, mostly of the gamelan kind. They perform their own
improvisations and some compositions by Soldier and others on
Thai Elephant Orchestra (2001) and
Elephonic Rhapsodies (Mulatta, 2004).
He also designed instruments for finches and chimpanzees.
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