Alban Wesly, bassoon
Moondog suite no. 1

Alban: “Sometimes musical projects sprout from an accidental meeting. In 2013 I was rehearsing in the German town of Bochum for a big piece by the American composer Harry Partch when I had a quick espresso in the locally famous Baristoteles (beste name ever!). A heavy bearded man asked if I was in a theater piece (I was wearing my concert outfit). I told him about my show and it turned out Partch was one of his two musical heroes (!), “together with Moondog”.

At the time this was a new name to me, but thanks to my fellow coffee lover this was soon to change. My new friend was called Stefan Lakatos and in the coming days he introduced me into the wondrous world of Louis Harding, artist name Moondog, also know as The Viking of 6th Avenue. Stefan appeared to have been an acquaintance of the blind Moondog, to possess many of his yet unpublished compositions (in braille!), and to have re-build Moondog’s unique percussion intstrument, the Trimba.

Long story short: two years later Stefan Lakatos brought his Trimba to Amsterdam, and we performed some Moondog pieces together. The video of that performance is now our most watched video, and the comments below it (click to the youtube page) show that some listeners think to see Moondog himself in action! More info on Moondog here.”