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 pjeva "(Ništa osim) cvijeća"

Filmed:
753,721 views

David Byrne pjeva hit Talking Headsa iz 1988. "(Ništa osim) cvijeća." Prate ga Thomas Dolby i gudački kvartet Ethel, koji su postali kućni sastav TED2010.
- 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
(MusicGlazba)
0
1000
5000
(Glazba)
00:37
♫ Here we standstajati
1
22000
3000
♫ Ovdje stojimo ♫
00:41
♫ Like an AdamAdam and an EveEve
2
26000
4000
♫ Poput Adama i Eve ♫
00:46
WaterfallsSlapovi
3
31000
4000
♫ Vodopadi ♫
00:50
♫ The GardenVrt of EdenEden
4
35000
4000
♫ Rajski vrt ♫
00:55
♫ Two foolsbudale in love ♫
5
40000
3000
♫ Dvije zaljubljene budale ♫
00:59
♫ So beautifullijep and strongjak
6
44000
4000
♫ Tako lijepo i snažno ♫
01:04
BirdsPtice in the treesstabla
7
49000
3000
♫ Ptice na drveću ♫
01:08
♫ Are smilingnasmijan uponna them ♫
8
53000
4000
♫ Im se smiju ♫
01:12
♫ From the agedob of the dinosaursdinosauri
9
57000
4000
♫ Od doba dinosaura ♫
01:16
CarsAutomobili would runtrčanje on gasolinebenzin
10
61000
4000
♫ Automobili idu na benzin ♫
01:21
♫ Where? Where have they goneotišao? ♫
11
66000
4000
♫ Gdje? Gdje su nestali? ♫
01:25
♫ Now, there's nothing but flowerscvijeće
12
70000
5000
♫ Ne postoji ništa osim cvijeća ♫
01:30
♫ This was a factorytvornica
13
75000
2000
♫ Ovo je bila tvornica ♫
01:32
♫Now there are mountainsplanine and riversrijeka
14
77000
4000
♫ Sada su tu brda i rijeke ♫
01:37
♫ You got it, you got it ♫
15
82000
2000
♫ Shvatili ste, shvatili ste ♫
01:39
♫ We caughtzatečen a rattlesnakečegrtuša
16
84000
2000
♫ Uhvatili smo zvečarku ♫
01:41
♫ Now we'veimamo got something for dinnervečera
17
86000
4000
♫ Sada imamo nešto za večeru ♫
01:46
♫ You got it, you got it ♫
18
91000
2000
♫ Shvatili ste, shvatili ste ♫
01:48
♫ This was a parkingparkiralište lot ♫
19
93000
2000
♫ Ovo je bio parking ♫
01:50
♫ Now it's all coveredpokriven with flowerscvijeće
20
95000
4000
♫ Sada je cijeli prekriven cvijećem ♫
01:55
♫ You got it, you got it ♫
21
100000
2000
♫ Shvatili ste, shvatili ste ♫
01:57
♫ If this is paradiseraj
22
102000
2000
♫ Ako je ovo raj ♫
01:59
♫ I wishželja I had a lawnmowerkosilica
23
104000
5000
♫ Želio bih imati kosilicu ♫
02:04
♫ You got it, you got it ♫
24
109000
2000
♫ Shvatili ste, shvatili ste ♫
02:42
♫ This was a shoppingkupovina malltrgovački centar
25
147000
2000
♫ Ovo je bio trgovački centar ♫
02:44
♫ Now it's turnedokrenut into cornkukuruz fieldpolje
26
149000
4000
♫ Sada je pretvoren u polje kukuruza ♫
02:49
♫ You got it, you got it ♫
27
154000
2000
♫ Shvatili ste, shvatili ste ♫
02:51
♫ Don't leavenapustiti me strandednasukan here ♫
28
156000
2000
♫ Ne ostavljaj me na cjedilu ♫
02:53
♫ I can't get used to this lifestylenačin života
29
158000
5000
♫ Ne mogu se naviknuti na ovaj način života ♫
02:59
(ApplausePljesak)
30
164000
4000
(Pljesak)
03:03
ThomasThomas DolbyDolby: DavidDavid ByrneByrne.
31
168000
2000
Thomas Dolby: David Byrne.
03:05
(ApplausePljesak)
32
170000
5000
(Pljesak)

▲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