The sound of vegetables
The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra has made a new CD called The Green Album.
The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra is a band with 10 people.The orchestra started 21 years ago and they have played their vegetable instruments in many places in the world, including the Royal Festival Hall in London and the Yuen Long Theatre in Hong Kong.
The band plays on instruments made of fresh vegetables. They use carrots, leeks, celery, pumpkins, aubergines and courgettes to make different instruments; for example, recorders, marimbas, saxophones, horns and drums.
The musicians have to make new instruments for every concert. On the morning before a concert, they go to the market to buy vegetables. Then they spend the rest of the day making their vegetable instruments for the concert in the evening.
The new CD has 14 pieces of original music in different styles. There are a number of minimalist compositions, there is a hip-hop piece and another one that uses West African rhythms.
“Many people think we are just a comedy show,” one of the musicians said. “But when they hear our music they are surprised, because we make really interesting music with our vegetables,” he said.
After the concert they make a soup with all of the vegetables, and they give it to the people in the audience.