Thai Elephant Orchestra

David Soldier & Richard Lair (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 10, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mulatta
• ASIN: B00005B19H
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #204,441 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #3 in Music > World Music > Far East & Asia > Thailand

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars what you see is what you get--but it ain't bad!, August 6, 2001

By 

G. Angell (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Thai Elephant Orchestra (Audio CD)

Take it for what it is: elephants playing musical instruments. The overall impression could be described as the sounds of windchimes and the odd harmonica strain and drum roll, or a toddler gamelon orchestra. For the sheer novelty of it, this CD is fun to listen to. You can't dance to it, but you can enjoy it on a lazy day, or while working. It's not obtrusive, but it is just curious enough to periodically stop and contemplate this or that toot and jangle. It is hard to completely take the context out of the listening experience, which is not a bad thing, since these are out of work elephants who now have a new profession, and everyone benefits. The elephants can bang on their pipes and toot their harmonicas, their mahouts can feed their families, and the rest of us can listen with interest, awe or a sense of transport to an obscure musical moment.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best thing I have ever heard, April 21, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Thai Elephant Orchestra (Audio CD)

Don't go by the name. In fact I got this link as a joke, I heard the music samples, liked what I heard and ended up buying the CD. It was definitely one of my most fruitful blind investments.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A novelty album, but a good one..., August 21, 2003

By 

Travis Miller (Shepherdstown, WV United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Thai Elephant Orchestra (Audio CD)

It sounds about like what you'd expect - a lot of chaotic, metallic banging. Of course, that's not necessarily a bad thing, at least not to the open-minded and/or art-damaged listener.

This is one of those CDs that you listen to a couple of times and then put on the shelf, until you want to amuse a friend. Which is to say that it's basically a novelty album, despite the avant-garde pretenses.

Track 15 ("Trio for Theremin & Electronic Keyboard") cracks me up; I can just imagine one elephant playing the theremin with its trunk while the others bang away on a giant sampler keyboard. I would LOVE to see this live. The animals' naïve enthusiasm really comes through; although the sounds are not structured in any conventionally musical sense, it is clear that they are made with intent, and that is what makes this recording delightful.

I wish I could get my cats to do something like this, but their musical proficiency is limited to walking across the piano keyboard while I'm trying to sleep.

Incidentally, these same elephants paint. And no, they weren't mistreated. By all accounts they thoroughly enjoy their performances.