Arto Lindsay

Listening to Arto Lindsay's work, be it as noise artist, poetic lyricist or innovative producer, means crossing the frontiers into a unique and original sonic universe. American, born in Brazil (28 March 1953), he grew up a child of Tropicalism in the 1960s, one of the most experimental and eclectic musical movements of the 20th century.
At the end of the 70s he went back to the Lower East Side neighbourhood of Manhattan in New York where the "no wave" noise scene was emerging. His band DNA was one of the genre's leading groups. The innovations made by this movement would largely influence Sonic Youth and later on New York's illbient scene. Four tracks by DNA were chosen by Brian Eno, the famous English pioneer, for his compilation "No New York" - the avant-garde underground discovered Arto Lindsay. With Ambitious Lovers, the band formed with Peter Scherer (keyboards) during the 80s, Arto Lindsay went back to his Brazilo-pop roots. He successfully brought together the distinctly different sounds of hard-core, funk, R&B, pop and bossa nova, concentrating on the profoundly experimental nature of these various musical structures. The result is surprisingly coherent. The fragile beauty of bossa, the inspired lyrics of a literature-lover (a passion inherited from his Brazilian culture), the ancient rhythms of a universal African consciousness and the ephemeral modernity of pop come together in a new voyage of exploration.
Alongside his personal work, Arto plays with John Lurie's Lounge Lizards, produces tracks for Laurie Anderson and collaborates with fellow musical adventurers John Zorn, David Byrne, Bill Frisell, Ryuichi Sakamoto to name but a few.
The just reward of a widely acclaimed reputation, during the 90s Arto joined up with the idols of his adolescence and worked with some of the Tropicalist movement's giants : Caetano Veloso, Djavan, Gal Costa, Vinicius Cantuaria…Without forgetting his commitment to musical experimentation and progress. His latest solo albums are accompanied by 'broken' or 'recycled' remixes by DJ Spooky, DJ Soul Slinger or Sub Dub, current members of New York's radical illbient movement, so influenced in its time by the work of the young Arto.


Marushka

Artist website