Julian Koster and His Singing Saws

The world met Julian Koster as part of the Elephant 6 Collective
in the 1990s, when he played a variety of instruments with
Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, and his own
projects, The Music Tapes and The Orbiting Human Circus. In 2008,
he released The Singing Saw at Christmastime, and part of the
conceit is that the saws actually do the singing. He's not
playing the saws; he's encouraging them to sing.


That element of whimsy is part of the fun of Koster's projects
and our conversation, though he brought engineer Nesey Gallons on
the call with him to be a lifeline when Koster starts to drift
too far out. 


Our conversation covers some ground, from an unexpected
appearance by Leadbelly to a Christmas interlude courtesy of
Japanese filmmaker Akira  Kurosawa. Koster and Gallons also
turned me on to a Folksways compilation of Ukrainian Christmas
songs. The song we hear is "The Miracle of the Birth."