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Comment from sam greene
Date: August 25, 2008, 6:51 pm

Can you tell us what type of software Zoe uses?

Comment from sam greene
Date: August 25, 2008, 7:10 pm

Found it – Ableton Live.

Comment from Tom Rex (from LD list)
Date: August 25, 2008, 7:17 pm

“…hearing your past over and over again can get boring, so you might want to change it…” Right on Zoe!

I love the way you make percussive rhythms, I assume beating on your cello. I took some downloads of yours recently from eMusic and mixed them with some Calexico for an wonder-full evening of home-spun DJing. It was great!

Comment from Ali
Date: August 26, 2008, 10:19 am

some of the best music I have heard in a long while

Comment from Brian
Date: August 26, 2008, 11:10 am

Listening now to the first piece and am blown away. This is heartbreakingly gorgeous music, and like Ali, I also feel that this is easily some of the best music that I’ve heard in ages.

Comment from Rae
Date: August 26, 2008, 11:10 am

Lovely! I’m a big fan of Rasputina, and of Radio Lab… how nice to hear them together.

Comment from lbphot
Date: August 26, 2008, 2:50 pm

I just love you Zoë ! Thanks for this rechording

Comment from lbphot
Date: August 26, 2008, 2:52 pm

even if ya forget my poster… :-*

Comment from marc Cardwell
Date: August 26, 2008, 4:04 pm

between this show and the previous “wordless music,” i’m so happy to hear new music that i didn’t know about. love this show, thanks for the great work.

Comment from Lara
Date: August 26, 2008, 6:09 pm

The music is just lovely–cello is my favorite insturment and what I would play if given the choice. What Zoe is doing sounds similar to KT Tunstall’s “wee bastard pedal”, which started as a way for her to play unaccompanied. She still uses it in concert to great effect even though she has a back-up band. It’s amazing the range of sounds that string insturments have, be they cello, guitar, or whatever. Thanks for a great show–can’t wait for the new season!

Comment from Kelly
Date: August 26, 2008, 6:19 pm

Beautiful music, gave me chills. This is exactly the kind of inward spiraling music I love to paint to. Thanks Radiolab, thanks Zoe.

Comment from Willie
Date: August 26, 2008, 9:55 pm

thanks, very inspiring music. I hope Larkin is listening

Comment from Christian
Date: August 27, 2008, 1:34 am

Singer/songwriter Andrew Bird also does quite a lot with quite a little, much in the same vein as Ms. Keating. He loops his violin bows, plucks, taps, and strums to form the basics of most of his songs, which he fills with guitars, drum loops, a beautiful voice, and pitch-perfect whistling. He also has some pseudo-sciency lyrics…sometimes. I’m sure many RadioLab fans are familiar with Andrew Bird, but I wanted to make sure he got a shout out!

Comment from Teri
Date: August 27, 2008, 10:23 am

I’m a big fan of Zoe’s after seeing her in a small but wonderful venue, AMSD, in San Diego, when she appeared with the California Guitar Trio. I was in awe of her artistry and amazing ability to layer sounds of uncommon types from one instrument. Great interview! Looking forward to the next album…

Comment from Cindy Henley
Date: August 28, 2008, 3:24 pm

When I heard the podcast, I wanted to talk to someone about it. I called my nephew to see if he had heard it he had not yet.

I find the music unsettling and beautiful at the same time. Like life… When I was a kid, I had this fantasy that if I just sat down at the piano and played it would sound beautiful. That I could just play if I didn’t think about it and just played. Then one day in my thirties I did. It is so relaxing and beautiful. I just let my emotions take me where I am going while I play. I guess the question that comes to my mind… the challenge I find is: how do you notate the music to reproduce it at a later time? Do you somehow write it down or do you just remember it in your mind? Is there a way to notate it in such a way that someone else could play it?

So many thoughts and emotions were stirred up by this broadcast. It is beautiful, disturbingly so at times. On a side note, the way Zoe talks sounds almost exactly like a friend of mine. She, Martha, is articulate and very intelligent, headstrong at times with an underlying questioning of herself every now and then (for Zoe I saw it a little when she talked about her stagefright). Have you ever heard someone talk and you just kept thinking,”Who does that sound like?” I had to call Martha up.

Thanks for the podcast. I can’t wait to get Zoe’s CD’s.

Comment from Jim Norman
Date: August 29, 2008, 9:33 pm

Does anyone how Jad recorded Zoe’s performances? A little bump here and there suggests he used some sort of field recorder (and didn’t just get her to record the performances with her Ableton software and give them to him to add later). Beautiful recordings of beautiful music.

Comment from dalton
Date: August 30, 2008, 9:48 am

I am thrilled that Radiolab is producing these interstitial podcasts… it makes the wait until next season so much easier.

I was listening to this episode in my darkroom last night while making prints. It’s phenomenal music, very inspiring, and I had to buy both albums immediately.

Comment from Alex
Date: August 31, 2008, 12:48 pm

This is probably my favorite “quickie” podcast. Zoe is incredible! Please do more stuff with her in the future if possible! =) Can’t wait for Season 5!

Comment from Disciple of “Bob”
Date: August 31, 2008, 8:02 pm

Terry Reiley and/or Frippertronics, anyone?

Comment from Lamont
Date: September 3, 2008, 5:36 pm

Great podcast. I’ve heard Zoe Keating live quite a few times in SF, both solo and when she played with Rasputina. I highly recommend seeing her perform, she’s not just a fantastic cellist, but also quite charming during her performances.

If you liked her looping cello, I also recommend looking for and listening to loop!station, a cello/vocalist duet that uses similar looping techniques to build incredible walls of sound with just the two performers while live.

Comment from Darth Brooks
Date: September 3, 2008, 10:16 pm

She’s no Squarepusher, but the music is highly listenable.

Comment from Jim
Date: September 4, 2008, 3:05 am

Great stuff. It reminded me that I lived in Oxford, England in the late 80s and this busker used an electric violin with a similar effect. A few years later, I found a CD by him in the local HMV. He’s called Ed Alleyne Johnson, and worth a look. His songs are a bit more structured than Zoes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Alleyne-Johnson

Comment from Scott
Date: September 4, 2008, 10:45 am

For those of us in NYC, there is a monthly party called Warper, which is themed around this new live remix, layered looping, etc. Many of the artists use live instruments in conjunction with pre-recorded sounds. There is a cellist who goes by the moniker Cosmo D who does something very similar to this, though more towards the funk end of the spectrum.
http://www.warperparty.com

Comment from Big
Date: September 4, 2008, 7:45 pm

There’s a nice snippet of her playing in the videos at simnuke.org – on this page (if the software lets me post links):

http://www.simnuke.org/images.html

Big

Comment from Chris
Date: September 5, 2008, 3:57 am

amazing.

Comment from Trevor Redmond
Date: September 5, 2008, 10:35 am

Zoe, your music was hauntingly beautiful and I certianly hope to find your music online, someplace. Thanks for providing a unique sample and insight to an amazing work you’ve done.

Comment from DL
Date: September 6, 2008, 6:46 pm

Zoe’s looping cello reminded me of the music by Caryn Lin, who I heard several years ago. Caryn loops her electronic violin.

If interested, see http://www.carynlin.com!

Comment from Louis
Date: September 8, 2008, 9:21 am

There’s another artist who also uses Apleton named Kid Beyond. He layers loops of him beatboxing and will create entire songs
http://www.kidbeyond.com/

Comment from Tracy
Date: September 9, 2008, 1:28 pm

Hi I am really interested in the first piece of music in the podcast. I am a choreographer looking for ideas and that piece was so great, how can I find out the title and purchase it?
thanks

Comment from DonG
Date: September 11, 2008, 11:56 am

Wow.

Thanks Jad and company for this sterling gift. I listened to Zoe’s piece on the subway and let it continue to play as I exited the train and station. The experience was singular and wonderful and reminded me why I love the show. Thanks again.

Comment from David
Date: September 12, 2008, 3:20 pm

Amazing episode, as always. I was lucky enough to load up the podcast before a long bus ride, and as always Radio Lab was a perfect companion to watching the highway drift by.

Zoe was kind enough to let us use a song for a recent video, so I thought I’d share:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmrkvjjGK1Q

Comment from Simon
Date: September 15, 2008, 6:39 am

This was brilliant, thank you. Is there any way to get the album in the UK?

Comment from Keith Landry
Date: November 7, 2008, 9:26 am

For those of you wondering what Zoe is using to loop listen here:
http://typicalmacuser.com/wordpress/2008/09/02/tmup-146-its-ladies-night-on-tmup/

Comment from Neil Cowley
Date: November 24, 2008, 1:05 pm

Awesome ambiance – fun thought to channel the past – with software sounds…

Comment from asperse
Date: December 7, 2008, 11:16 am

SooperLooper is the key piece of software used for looping. And I’m pretty sure she uses it with logic.

Sooperlooper is free (donations encouraged) software that is really fun to use.

Comment from James
Date: January 9, 2009, 7:58 pm

Wonderful podcast! The first song she performed sounds so familiar & I can’t put my finger on it. Does anyone know if it’s featured in a commercial or something like that? It’s absolutely beautiful.

Comment from Irwin
Date: January 25, 2009, 2:01 pm

I love you Zoe Keating. You create a world that is at once enthralling and mesmerizing. Your music touches my soul.

Pingback from sundays are foolish. « The Smallworld
Date: April 5, 2009, 4:50 am

[...] said, I’ve been plumbing the depths of the archives, and I came upon a podcast where they highlight cellist Zoe Keating. With her laptop and a foot petal, she loops and tweaks her cello, to produce a beautiful, unique [...]

Comment from Matt
Date: April 16, 2009, 5:57 pm

Thank you Radio Lab!

And Thank you Zoe!
I was listening to this podcast at work and was completely leveled by this music. I love that when Zoe was asked to play something, she asked if it was ok to improvise… and something beautiful, that may never be heard again (except for this podcast) was born, existed for 3 or so minutes, and was blinked out of existance.

Thank you,
-Matt

Comment from John Knox
Date: May 9, 2009, 5:31 am

Found this extremely fascinating; especially in finding out how Zoe layers the sounds over and over.

I went to great lengths to have her CD ‘One Cello X16 Natoma’ sent to NZ and there is a strong possibility that it is the only one in the country.

I play it sometimes over at Pigeon Bay, Banks Peninsula. ‘Google Earth’ that place folks and you’ll see why I probably play it there.

Thanks John Knox – Christchurch, NZ

Pingback from Create Digital Music » Cellist Zoe Keating on Quitting Your Day Job, Going on Tour
Date: July 8, 2009, 12:53 pm

[...] Quantum Cello, WNYC Radio Lab [Audio podcast / interview] [...]

Comment from daveberta
Date: July 20, 2009, 1:17 pm

To this day, this episode remains one of my favorite Radio Lab podcasts. Great work, keep it up!

Pingback from WindWorks Design/Blog » Blog Archive » Zoë Keating – Live cello layered via PC
Date: August 9, 2009, 9:25 pm

[...] specifically about Zoë Keating’s music for War of the Worlds.  That podcast is called:  WNYC’s Radio Lab: Quantum Cello. Looking at her website, her movie soundtrack list is long and [...]