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 zingt "(Alleen maar) bloemen"

Filmed:
753,721 views

David Byrne zingt de Talking Heads-hit uit 1988, "(Nothing But) Flowers", begeleid door Thomas Dolby en het Ethel strijkkwartet, de huismusici van TED 2010.
- 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
(MusicMuziek)
0
1000
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(Muziek)
00:37
♫ Here we standstand
1
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♫ Hier staan we ♫
00:41
♫ Like an AdamAdam and an EveEve
2
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♫ Als een Adam en een Eva ♫
00:46
WaterfallsWatervallen
3
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♫ Watervallen ♫
00:50
♫ The GardenTuin of EdenEden
4
35000
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♫ De tuinen van Eden ♫
00:55
♫ Two foolsdwazen in love ♫
5
40000
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♫ Twee verliefde dwazen ♫
00:59
♫ So beautifulmooi and strongsterk
6
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♫ Zo sterk en zo mooi ♫
01:04
BirdsVogels in the treesbomen
7
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♫ Vogels in de bomen ♫
01:08
♫ Are smilingglimlachen uponop them ♫
8
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♫ Kijk glimlachend neer ♫
01:12
♫ From the ageleeftijd of the dinosaursdinosaurussen
9
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♫ Vanuit het tijdperk van de dinosauriërs ♫
01:16
CarsAuto 's would runrennen on gasolinebenzine
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♫ Auto's zouden op benzine lopen ♫
01:21
♫ Where? Where have they goneweg? ♫
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♫ Waar? Waar zijn ze naartoe? ♫
01:25
♫ Now, there's nothing but flowersbloemen
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♫ Nu zijn er slechts nog bloemen ♫
01:30
♫ This was a factoryfabriek
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♫ Dit was een fabriek ♫
01:32
♫Now there are mountainsbergen and riversrivieren
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♫ Nu zijn er bergen en rivieren ♫
01:37
♫ You got it, you got it ♫
15
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♫ Je hebt het, je hebt het ♫
01:39
♫ We caughtgevangen a rattlesnakeratelslang
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♫ We vangen een ratelslang ♫
01:41
♫ Now we'vewij hebben got something for dinneravondeten
17
86000
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♫ Nu hebben we iets voor 't diner ♫
01:46
♫ You got it, you got it ♫
18
91000
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♫ Je hebt het, je hebt het ♫
01:48
♫ This was a parkingparkeren lot ♫
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♫ Dit was een parkeerplaats ♫
01:50
♫ Now it's all coveredbedekt with flowersbloemen
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♫ Nu is ze helemaal bedekt met bloemen ♫
01:55
♫ You got it, you got it ♫
21
100000
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♫ Je hebt het, je hebt het ♫
01:57
♫ If this is paradiseparadijs
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♫ Als dit het paradijs is ♫
01:59
♫ I wishwens I had a lawnmowergrasmaaier
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♫ Wilde ik dat ik een grasmaaier had ♫
02:04
♫ You got it, you got it ♫
24
109000
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♫ Je hebt het, je hebt het ♫
02:42
♫ This was a shoppinghet winkelen mallwinkelcentrum
25
147000
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♫ Dit was een winkelcentrum ♫
02:44
♫ Now it's turnedgedraaid into cornmaïs fieldveld-
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149000
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♫ nu is het een graanveld ♫
02:49
♫ You got it, you got it ♫
27
154000
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♫ Je hebt het, je hebt het ♫
02:51
♫ Don't leavehet verlof me strandedgestrand here ♫
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156000
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♫ Laat me hier niet gestrand achter ♫
02:53
♫ I can't get used to this lifestylelevensstijl
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♫ Ik kan niet wennen aan deze manier van leven ♫
02:59
(ApplauseApplaus)
30
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(Applaus)
03:03
ThomasThomas DolbyDolby: DavidDavid ByrneByrne.
31
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Thomas Dolby: David Byrne.
03:05
(ApplauseApplaus)
32
170000
5000
(Applaus)
Translated by Thom Kuijsten
Reviewed by Albert Edelman

▲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