(born themes.
Although Lindsay was born in the United States, he spent many years in
Brazil with his
Missionary parents and came of age during the influential
Tropicália movement of Brazilian culture, which included musicians
Caetano Veloso ,
Gal Costa ,
Os Mutantes and
Gilberto Gil , as well as the visual artists
Hélio Oiticica ,
Lygia Clark and
Antonio Dias . This time of cultural experimentation and artistic cross-pollination made an enduring impact on the young Lindsay.
In
New York , Lindsay began his artistic ambitions as a writer, but quickly became interested in the art and music scenes that were evolving out of the New York
Punk Rock scene at the time.
In the late
1970s , he co-formed the seminal
No Wave group
DNA with
Ikue Mori and
Robin Crutchfield , although
Tim Wright of
Pere Ubu fame would soon replace Crutchfield. In
1978 , DNA was featured on the four-band sampler ''
No New York '' (produced by
Brian Eno ) which brought an early taste of international notoriety to the group, and which quickly became the essential document of No Wave. The famous rock critic
Lester Bangs once described the group's ritualistic vocals, and deliberately primitive, speaker-shredding guitar as “horrible noise.”
In the early
1980s , Lindsay, and his particular style of guitar work, featured prominently in the early recordings of
John Lurie 's "fake jazz" outfit
The Lounge Lizards and
The Golden Palominos . These groups worked to break down distinctions between rock music, pop music, improvisation and
Avant-garde experimentalism. It was during this time that Lindsay established a collaborative friendship with
John Zorn , playing in a number of his ensembles including
Locus Solus (band) .
After leaving the Lounge Lizards, Lindsay formed the
Ambitious Lovers with keyboardist
Peter Scherer . This music was decidedly more pop influenced and featured more prominent attention to Brazilian music--
Samba and
Bossa Nova . Although their three albums, ''Greed'', ''Envy'', and ''Lust'' were Lindsay's first forays with a major record label, these albums genre-bending pop never caught on in the mainstream. The Ambitious Lovers disbanded in 1991, although Lindsay remained a strong working relationship with Scherer, and continued to record with him.
In the early
1990s . Lindsay began to rarefy his singing voice and launched a solo career which was significantly more oriented toward his Brazilian roots, singing in Portuguese more frequently, throwing in occasional covers of
Bossa Nova classics like
João Gilberto 's "Este Seu Olhar", and updating his sound from
1980s New Wave to more current types of
Electronica on albums such as ''O Corpo Sutil (The Subtle Body)'' (1996), ''Mundo Civilizado'' (1997), ''Noon Chill'' (1998), ''Prize'' (1999), ''Invoke'' (2002), and ''Salt'' (2004). These albums are unique in their reliance on collaboration between the musicians, producers and composers that Lindsay continues to work with; Lindsay has worked extensively with bassist
Melvin Gibbs , guitarist
Vinicius Cantuária , and producer
Andres Levin to help create his sound.
Throughout the late 1980s and through the 1990s, Lindsay also composed a number of soundtracks, dance commissions and even continued to dabble in No Wave-influenced projects, most notably with the
Arto Lindsay Trio , with Gibbs and
Dougie Bowne , who released ''Aggregates 1-26'' on the
Knitting Factory label in 1995.
Over the years, Lindsay has lent his musical talents to--and collaborated with--such artists as:
They Might Be Giants ,
David Byrne ,
Laurie Anderson ,
Marc Ribot ,
Cibo Matto ,
Bill Frisell ,
Animal Collective ,
Ryuichi Sakamoto ,
Krisma , and
Kip Hanrahan , to name but a few.
Lindsay has appeared in a number of films, usually in tie-ins with other artists. Lindsay had a cameo appearance in the
Madonna vehicle ''
Desperately Seeking Susan '' and can be seen playing "skronk" guitar in ''
Downtown 81 '', a film about the art and music in the East Village featuring
Jean-Michel Basquiat and
Deborah Harry . He is also featured in ''
Step Across The Border '', a documentary on the musician
Fred Frith , directed by
Nicolas Humbert and
Werner Penzel (1990).
Lindsay has produced recordings by Brazilian musicians
Caetano Veloso ,
Tom Zé ,
Vinicius Cantuária ,
Gal Costa ,
Carlinhos Brown , and
Marisa Monte .
From Lindsay's early days in New York amidst the burgeoning art and music scene of the
East Village , he was able to befriend and collaborate with a number of visual artists who have gone on to important careers in art. With
Diego Cortez (born James Curtis) — who would become the artistic director for all his solo endeavors starting in the mid 1990s — Lindsay became immersed in an art community that included
Jean-Michel Basquiat ,
Nan Goldin ,
Francesco Clemente and
Andy Warhol . Since then, Lindsay has included the work of Goldin,
Kara Walker ,
Matthew Barney ,
Philip Taffe and
Frédéric Bruly Bouabré on his albums.
He has also collaborated with Canadian artist
Rodney Graham at an exhibition at
Deitch Projects , and as part of a sound-art exhibition at
PS1 , a gallery in New York.
Arto Lindsay has written the epilogue for the official biography of the German experimental band
Einstürzende Neubauten ''No beauty without danger'' (German title: ''Nur was nicht ist, ist möglich'').
- Netmage 2006 performs ''Ipanema Théories'' with Dominique Gonzalez Foerster and alone'' Garden of self regard''
