The Vegetable Orchestra

You think I'm strange with the circuit bending? Well These people are even stranger, yet very compelling to listen too. They are the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra. The blurb from their site says it all.

The Vegetable Orchestra performs music solely on instruments made of vegetables. Using carrot flutes, pumpkin basses, leek violins, leek-zucchini-vibrators, cucumberophones and celery bongos, the orchestra creates its own extraordinary and vegetabile sound universe. The ensemble overcomes preserved and marinated sound conceptions or tirelessly re-stewed listening habits, putting its focus on expanding the variety of vegetable instruments, developing novel musical ideas and exploring fresh vegetable sound gardens.

You can hear excerpts from their album on the website, and it really does sound odd. I really quite like it. I would never have thought that you could make a flute out of a carrot and use a pepper as a trumpet like mute. This is just another example of how flexible vegetables are, cooking, music, and stuff that can't be shown on TV.



I found a video of them creating their instruments and then using them in a live concert. I really urge you to watch the video, it really is quite original and mind expanding. Who needs the London Philharmonic Orchestra, LOL. You can watch the video by clicking this link.



I am wondering how far this can be taken. For example with my circuit bending exploits I use extensive post production techniques to create very alien soundscapes, I wonder what this same process would sound like using vegetables. I might try it some time, you never know, my next set of industrial style evil sound textures could be made possible with a stick of celery, a punnet of strawberries and a marrow. Once I have recorded them, I could make soup. Right I'm off to the green grocers :-)