ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Thomas Dolby - Electronic music pioneer
Thomas Dolby has spent his career at the intersection of music and technology. He was an early star on MTV, then moved to Silicon Valley, then went back on the road with his album, "A Map of the Floating City."

Why you should listen

Perhaps best known for blinding us with science, Thomas Dolby has always blurred the lines between composition and invention. As a London teenager, Tom Robertson was fascinated with the convergence of music and technology. His experiments with an assortment of keyboards, synthesizers and cassette players led his friends to dub him “Dolby.” That same fascination later drove him to become an electronic musician and multimedia artist whose groundbreaking work fused music with computer technology and video. Two decades, several film scores, five Grammy nominations and countless live-layered sound loops later, it's clear Dolby's innovations have changed the sound of popular music.

In the 1990s, Dolby re-created himself as a digital-musical entrepreneur, founding Beatnik, which developed the polyphonic ringtone software used in more than half a billion cell phones. From 2001 to 2012, Dolby served as TED's Music Director, programming great music for the TED stage, assembling a wide variety of house bands and collaborations to play between speakers. At TED2010, backed by the string quarter Ethel, he premiered the song "Love Is a Loaded Pistol," from his sweeping, A Map of the Floating City. The album marked his return to recording and touring after a 15-year hiatus, and used seriously retro technology -- '40s-era oscilloscopes and Royal Navy field-test equipment -- to control modern synthesizers, in shows at once nostalgic and cutting edge.

In 2014, Dolby took on a new name: professor. He was named the Homewood Professor of the Arts at Johns Hopkins University, teaching the course "Sound on Film."

More profile about the speaker
Thomas Dolby | Speaker | TED.com
Ethel - String quartet
Ethel is, perhaps, the first 21st-century realization of the classical string quartet.

Why you should listen

An all-star foursome, Ethel includes performers Cornelius Dufallo (violin), Ralph Farris (viola), Dorothy Lawson (cello), and Mary Rowell (violin), a mixed bag of players from classical, rock and downtown new-music circles. The powerhouse ensemble takes an unconventional approach to performance.

Says the Wall Street Journal, "Ethel ... created a world in which classical music had never grown distant, a world in which it was as fresh and direct as crowds dancing in the street."

(photo by Steve J. Sherman)

More profile about the speaker
Ethel | Speaker | TED.com
David Byrne - Musician, artist, writer
David Byrne builds an idiosyncratic world of music, art, writing and film.

Why you should listen

Musician, author, filmmaker, curator, conservationist, digital music theorist, bicycle advocate, urban designer, visual artist, humanist ... David Byrne has many ways of expressing himself -- all of them heartfelt, authentic and thought-provoking.

From his groundbreaking recording career, first with Talking Heads and then as a solo artist and collaborator, to his recent use of digital media to connnect his creations to the world, he has been meshing art and technology to create jaw-dropping, soulful masterpieces that tell a story, and often invoke his audience to create some masterpieces of their own. In a recent art installation, Playing the Building, Byrne transformed an empty building into a musical instrument, and then invited visitors to play it. 

His book Bicycle Diaries is a journal of what he thought and experienced while cycling through the cities of the world. And his 2012 book How Music Works expands on his 2010 TEDTalk to imagine how music is shaped by its time and place. 

In David Byrne's 2010 TEDTalk, the image of CBGB comes from Joseph O. Holmes' CBGB series >>  

More profile about the speaker
David Byrne | Speaker | TED.com
TED2010

David Byrne, Ethel + Thomas Dolby: "(Nothing But) Flowers" with string quartet

David Byrne synger "(Nothing But) Flowers"

Filmed:
753,721 views

David Byrne synger Talking Heads' hit fra 1988, "(Nothing But) Flowers". Han akkompagneres af Thomas Dolby og strygekvartetten Ethel, som var TED2010's husorkester.
- Electronic music pioneer
Thomas Dolby has spent his career at the intersection of music and technology. He was an early star on MTV, then moved to Silicon Valley, then went back on the road with his album, "A Map of the Floating City." Full bio - String quartet
Ethel is, perhaps, the first 21st-century realization of the classical string quartet. Full bio - Musician, artist, writer
David Byrne builds an idiosyncratic world of music, art, writing and film. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:16
(MusicMusik)
0
1000
5000
Musik
00:37
♫ Here we standstå
1
22000
3000
♫ Her står vi ♫
00:41
♫ Like an AdamAdam and an EveEve
2
26000
4000
♫ Som en Adam og en Eva ♫
00:46
WaterfallsVandfald
3
31000
4000
♫ Vandfald ♫
00:50
♫ The GardenHaven of EdenEden
4
35000
4000
♫ Edens Have ♫
00:55
♫ Two foolsfjolser in love ♫
5
40000
3000
♫ To forelskede fjolser ♫
00:59
♫ So beautifulsmuk and strongstærk
6
44000
4000
♫ Så smukke og stærke ♫
01:04
BirdsFugle in the treestræer
7
49000
3000
♫ Fuglene i træerne ♫
01:08
♫ Are smilingsmilende upon them ♫
8
53000
4000
♫ Smiler ned til dem ♫
01:12
♫ From the agealder of the dinosaursdinosaurer
9
57000
4000
♫ Fra dinosaurernes tid ♫
01:16
CarsBiler would runløb on gasolinebenzin
10
61000
4000
♫ Kørte bilerne på benzin ♫
01:21
♫ Where? Where have they gonevæk? ♫
11
66000
4000
♫ Hvor? Hvor er de blevet af? ♫
01:25
♫ Now, there's nothing but flowersblomster
12
70000
5000
♫ Nu er der ikke andet end blomster ♫
01:30
♫ This was a factoryfabrik
13
75000
2000
♫ Dette var en fabrik ♫
01:32
♫Now there are mountainsbjerge and riversfloder
14
77000
4000
♫ Nu er der bjerge og floder ♫
01:37
♫ You got it, you got it ♫
15
82000
2000
♫ Du gjorde det, du gjorde det ♫
01:39
♫ We caughtfanget a rattlesnakeklapperslange
16
84000
2000
♫ Vi fangede en klapperslange ♫
01:41
♫ Now we'vevi har got something for dinneraftensmad
17
86000
4000
♫ Nu har vi noget til aftensmaden ♫
01:46
♫ You got it, you got it ♫
18
91000
2000
♫ Du gjorde det, du gjorde det ♫
01:48
♫ This was a parkingparkering lot ♫
19
93000
2000
♫ Dette var en parkeringsplads ♫
01:50
♫ Now it's all covereddækket with flowersblomster
20
95000
4000
♫ Nu er den dækket af blomster ♫
01:55
♫ You got it, you got it ♫
21
100000
2000
♫ Du gjorde det, du gjorde det ♫
01:57
♫ If this is paradiseparadis
22
102000
2000
♫ Hvis dette er paradis ♫
01:59
♫ I wishønske I had a lawnmowerplæneklipper
23
104000
5000
♫ Ville jeg ønske jeg havde en plæneklipper ♫
02:04
♫ You got it, you got it ♫
24
109000
2000
♫ Du gjorde det, du gjorde det ♫
02:42
♫ This was a shoppinghandle ind mallindkøbscenter
25
147000
2000
♫ Dette var et indkøbscenter ♫
02:44
♫ Now it's turnedvendt into cornmajs fieldMark
26
149000
4000
♫ Nu er det lavet om til en majsmark ♫
02:49
♫ You got it, you got it ♫
27
154000
2000
♫ Du gjorde det, du gjorde det ♫
02:51
♫ Don't leaveforlade me strandedstrandet here ♫
28
156000
2000
♫ Efterlad mig ikke her ♫
02:53
♫ I can't get used to this lifestylelevevis
29
158000
5000
♫ Jeg kan ikke vænne mig til denne livsstil ♫
02:59
(ApplauseBifald)
30
164000
4000
(Bifald)
03:03
ThomasThomas DolbyDolby: DavidDavid ByrneByrne.
31
168000
2000
Thomas Dolby: David Byrne.
03:05
(ApplauseBifald)
32
170000
5000
(Bifald)
Translated by Mikael Fuhr
Reviewed by Louise Frilund Petersen

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Thomas Dolby - Electronic music pioneer
Thomas Dolby has spent his career at the intersection of music and technology. He was an early star on MTV, then moved to Silicon Valley, then went back on the road with his album, "A Map of the Floating City."

Why you should listen

Perhaps best known for blinding us with science, Thomas Dolby has always blurred the lines between composition and invention. As a London teenager, Tom Robertson was fascinated with the convergence of music and technology. His experiments with an assortment of keyboards, synthesizers and cassette players led his friends to dub him “Dolby.” That same fascination later drove him to become an electronic musician and multimedia artist whose groundbreaking work fused music with computer technology and video. Two decades, several film scores, five Grammy nominations and countless live-layered sound loops later, it's clear Dolby's innovations have changed the sound of popular music.

In the 1990s, Dolby re-created himself as a digital-musical entrepreneur, founding Beatnik, which developed the polyphonic ringtone software used in more than half a billion cell phones. From 2001 to 2012, Dolby served as TED's Music Director, programming great music for the TED stage, assembling a wide variety of house bands and collaborations to play between speakers. At TED2010, backed by the string quarter Ethel, he premiered the song "Love Is a Loaded Pistol," from his sweeping, A Map of the Floating City. The album marked his return to recording and touring after a 15-year hiatus, and used seriously retro technology -- '40s-era oscilloscopes and Royal Navy field-test equipment -- to control modern synthesizers, in shows at once nostalgic and cutting edge.

In 2014, Dolby took on a new name: professor. He was named the Homewood Professor of the Arts at Johns Hopkins University, teaching the course "Sound on Film."

More profile about the speaker
Thomas Dolby | Speaker | TED.com
Ethel - String quartet
Ethel is, perhaps, the first 21st-century realization of the classical string quartet.

Why you should listen

An all-star foursome, Ethel includes performers Cornelius Dufallo (violin), Ralph Farris (viola), Dorothy Lawson (cello), and Mary Rowell (violin), a mixed bag of players from classical, rock and downtown new-music circles. The powerhouse ensemble takes an unconventional approach to performance.

Says the Wall Street Journal, "Ethel ... created a world in which classical music had never grown distant, a world in which it was as fresh and direct as crowds dancing in the street."

(photo by Steve J. Sherman)

More profile about the speaker
Ethel | Speaker | TED.com
David Byrne - Musician, artist, writer
David Byrne builds an idiosyncratic world of music, art, writing and film.

Why you should listen

Musician, author, filmmaker, curator, conservationist, digital music theorist, bicycle advocate, urban designer, visual artist, humanist ... David Byrne has many ways of expressing himself -- all of them heartfelt, authentic and thought-provoking.

From his groundbreaking recording career, first with Talking Heads and then as a solo artist and collaborator, to his recent use of digital media to connnect his creations to the world, he has been meshing art and technology to create jaw-dropping, soulful masterpieces that tell a story, and often invoke his audience to create some masterpieces of their own. In a recent art installation, Playing the Building, Byrne transformed an empty building into a musical instrument, and then invited visitors to play it. 

His book Bicycle Diaries is a journal of what he thought and experienced while cycling through the cities of the world. And his 2012 book How Music Works expands on his 2010 TEDTalk to imagine how music is shaped by its time and place. 

In David Byrne's 2010 TEDTalk, the image of CBGB comes from Joseph O. Holmes' CBGB series >>  

More profile about the speaker
David Byrne | Speaker | TED.com