10+10 Fishermen against the wind. 18) Thai Elephant Orchestra
An Elephant's Swan Song And now we’re at the podium! In third place, perhaps the strangest thing that has ever crossed my ears (while they still worked….): the Thai Elephant Orchestra.
That's right, an orchestra of elephants….
Now, one could open a long chapter about animals making music: aside from the easy jokes, there truly exists a staggering number of musical projects featuring frogs, dogs, cats, birds, etc., that sing (and sometimes play) everything from Christmas carols to metal, from dance hits to folk music…..
But the Thai Elephant Orchestra isn’t just some silly idea from a joker looking to have a laugh, nor is it the product of some non-Western culture for new agers or terminal fans of world music, nor the brainchild of some eccentric….
No, this is serious stuff, backed by two recognized and esteemed scholars.
The first is David Sulzer, a neuroscientist and researcher well known for his studies on the use of certain drugs (ah, here we go....) for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.
Our Dave, however, has a second life: under the name of Dave Soldier, he is a very active musician (and quite good too), and among the many things he does, I’ll just mention two: the Kropotkins, which features a certain Moe Tucker, and the Soldier String Quartet, an excellent group that has collaborated with a ton of great people (just to name one, you can find them on some of John Cale’s records. Like "Walking On Locust," for example).
The other is Richard Lair, among other things, the director of the Thai Elephant Conservation Center.
Richard and Dave meet and talk about music, and Richard tells Dave about the extraordinary musical abilities of elephants.
Now, for those who don't know, elephants are indeed gifted with music: they can memorize entire musical sequences and have great hearing! Serious studies have been conducted starting with those of German evolutionary biologist Bernard Rensch in the 1950s.
In short, the two set up an orchestra consisting of 6 to 14 elephants (they're in the Guinness World Records!), build special instruments for them, and have them perform; the elephants improvise on short patterns from Dave, together or one at a time, and the effect is….Well, listen for yourselves!
They have recorded three albums and, even today, they perform at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center in incredible live shows.
When we say: "that sounds just like an animal!"
