Arto Lindsay

Arthur Morgan "Arto" Lindsay was born in Virginia in 1953 but grew up between the United States and Brazil because of his parents' work. Regarded as one of rock music's intellectuals, he is artistically influenced by the tropicalismo of Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, by free jazz and by American experimental music, including the no wave scene, of which he would become one of the key figures.

Arto first emerges on the music scene when, at the start of the Eighties, he and keyboardist Peter Scherer found the dance-pop band Ambitious Lovers. The band's first album is "Envy", released in 1984, a record with an elegant rhythm that perfectly balances the artist's noise-leaning tendencies with the influences of traditional Brazilian music. "Envy" is followed by "Greed" in 1986 and "Lust" in 1991.

During the Nineties Lindsay becomes even more immersed in Brazilian music, and starts collaborating with luminaries of the genre such as Tom Zè, Marisa Monte and João Gilberto, which leads him to release his first album under his own name alone. He puts out "Aggregates 1-26" in 1995, a collection of avant-garde pieces that establish themselves as the benchmark for the noise genre. Arto then releases his next work, "Mundo Civilizado", for Bar/None Records, a label he will work with until 1998.

Lindsay becomes the first artist to release albums on Ani Difranco's record label, Righteous Babe. He starts with "The Prize" in 1999, followed by "Invoke" in 2002 and "Salt" in 2004, all marked by his trademark synthesis of Brazilian music and avant-garde guitar lines.

The following years bring a string of collaborations, from his contribution to the debut album of Anarchist Republic of Bzzz, to a performance in Rio de Janeiro with jazz drummer Paal Nilssen-Love in 2013.

In 2014 Arto releases "Encyclopedia Of Arto" through Ponderosa Music & Art, a double album featuring one disc of already-known material and one of live performances. Three years later, inspired by his move to Brazil, he releases - again through Ponderosa Music & Art - "Cuidado Madame". It is his first album of new material in ten years, a work in which Lindsay ventures into exploring the rhythms associated with the Brazilian religion of Candomblé.