Mastering how to play a musical instrument is difficult in itself, but to master the art of making the instruments to play with takes the love for music to a whole new level. This band from Vienna called the Vegetable Orchestra does both and as an encore at the end of their concerts and performances, they offer the audience fresh vegetable soup that is prepared by the cut-offs.
Founded in 1998, this talented band plays concerts all over the world with indigenous instruments made from various veggies and they are really good. From contemporary music, beat-oriented House tracks, experimental Electronic, Free Jazz, Noise, Dub, Clicks’n’Cuts, the list just goes on.
All the instruments are made from vegetables: “from fresh as well as dried plant material such as carrot, leek, celery root, artichoke, dried pumpkin and onion skin. All these components are used for building organic instruments and sound generators which usually only last for one concert or one day in the studio. In addition to the vegetables, various utensils like record players or power drills are used to create unusual noises and to add unexpected texture to the music,” says their website.
The ensemble has a mix of people from various backgrounds — musicians, visual artists, architects, designers, media artists, writers and sound poets. They have three CD albums called Gemise, Automate and Onionoise to their credit. For each of these albums, the group had to literally invent new instruments and music to make it different from the prior album.
The patience required to build an instrument every time you want to play is inapprehensible. Their hard work is and persistence is surely commendable.
