Moondog: New Sound

Moondog (Louis Thomas Hardin) was an eccentric American composer whose music straddled baroque classical and Native American tribalism. He received international exposure in 1969 when CBS included a track of his on their celebrated sampler album Fill Your Head With Rock; later the same track was used in the soundtrack to the Coen Brothers’ film The Big Lebowski. Moondog composed chamber and choral music but frequently performed his work on organ. The Ensemble Minisym are an instrumental sextet formed in 2013 in Nantes, France. They have taken some of Moondog's organ compositions and reinterpreted them for a small ensemble. The instrumentation comprises theorbo (baroque lute), violin, viola, cello, harmonium, hurdy-gurdy, guitar and percussion. It's a well-realised concept with a distinct classical music sensibility. The droning quality of harmonium and hurdy-gurdy and addition of mechanical percussive rhythms (Moondog's tribal influence) gives the recording an air of experimentation, reminiscent of Pierre Bastien's mecanoids – mechanical, robotic musical instruments. A beautiful and melancholic musical experience.