The music of the late, great New York oddity they called Moondog is celebrated over two shows in one night at the Barbican on 30th May.
TextSwax Mciver
Weirdo? Maybe. Genius? Quite possibly. Either way, the music of Moondog - born Louis Thomas Hardin, defies any simple categorisation. As did the man himself, particularly his penchant for donning full self-made Norse costume while living on the streets of New York City – where he gained the nickname “The Viking of 6th Ave”, throughout the 1950s and 60s.
An 83-year adventure that would take him from the provincial backwaters of his hometown in Marysville, Kansas in 1916 to Münster, Germany in 1999 – via almost forty years in NYC, Moondog’s life as percussionist, vocalist, poet, composer, innovator and all-round cosmologist has left its curiously compelling mark far and wide. Indeed, as anyone from Philip Glass and Steve Reich to Charlie Parker, Mouse On Mars, Damon Albarn, Elvis Costello and, more recently, Mr Scruff – famously sampling his “Bird’s Lament” on “Get A Move On”, would all tip their hats in respect to the blind composer.
In a search for new sounds – inspired mainly by the general ambience of his chosen street level existence, he also invented several musical instruments, including a small triangular-shaped harp known as the "Oo", another which he named the "Ooo-ya-tsu", and (perhaps his most well-known) the "Trimba", a triangular percussion piece that he built in the late 1940s. Coupled up with well over thirty records released over his more-than-peculiar lifetime, Moondog was as much a tourist attraction in Manhattan as he was a musical enigma. “I always thought he was a homeless guy,” says actor Jeff Bridges in a current documentary being made on the ‘dog’s life. “He was always there, rain or shine. He was the real deal – a wonderful composer.”
In turn, those responsible for programming the Barbican Contemporary Music’s season have thankfully seen fit to devote a double-bill of shows dedicated to the white-bearded one on 30th May. “The Viking of 6th Ave - The Music of Moondog” in the Barbican’s Main Hall features the Moondog Choir and London Saxophonic as well as the Britten Sinfonia with Andi Thoma (of Mouse On Mars), who collaborated with Moondog while the composer was living in Germany. Meanwhile, "Moondog Around Midnight" takes place in the more apt setting of the Church of St Giles Cripplegate at 11.30pm on the same evening. US organist Paul Jordan, a veteran Moondog collaborator, will play a concert of the composer’s organ music. As the man himself once famously pointed out, “I’m not living in the past, instead the past is living in me.”
And so it continues...
An 83-year adventure that would take him from the provincial backwaters of his hometown in Marysville, Kansas in 1916 to Münster, Germany in 1999 – via almost forty years in NYC, Moondog’s life as percussionist, vocalist, poet, composer, innovator and all-round cosmologist has left its curiously compelling mark far and wide. Indeed, as anyone from Philip Glass and Steve Reich to Charlie Parker, Mouse On Mars, Damon Albarn, Elvis Costello and, more recently, Mr Scruff – famously sampling his “Bird’s Lament” on “Get A Move On”, would all tip their hats in respect to the blind composer.
In a search for new sounds – inspired mainly by the general ambience of his chosen street level existence, he also invented several musical instruments, including a small triangular-shaped harp known as the "Oo", another which he named the "Ooo-ya-tsu", and (perhaps his most well-known) the "Trimba", a triangular percussion piece that he built in the late 1940s. Coupled up with well over thirty records released over his more-than-peculiar lifetime, Moondog was as much a tourist attraction in Manhattan as he was a musical enigma. “I always thought he was a homeless guy,” says actor Jeff Bridges in a current documentary being made on the ‘dog’s life. “He was always there, rain or shine. He was the real deal – a wonderful composer.”
In turn, those responsible for programming the Barbican Contemporary Music’s season have thankfully seen fit to devote a double-bill of shows dedicated to the white-bearded one on 30th May. “The Viking of 6th Ave - The Music of Moondog” in the Barbican’s Main Hall features the Moondog Choir and London Saxophonic as well as the Britten Sinfonia with Andi Thoma (of Mouse On Mars), who collaborated with Moondog while the composer was living in Germany. Meanwhile, "Moondog Around Midnight" takes place in the more apt setting of the Church of St Giles Cripplegate at 11.30pm on the same evening. US organist Paul Jordan, a veteran Moondog collaborator, will play a concert of the composer’s organ music. As the man himself once famously pointed out, “I’m not living in the past, instead the past is living in me.”
And so it continues...
