Julian Koster and His Singing Saws

<p>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 <a href='https://www.orbitinghumancircus.com'>The Orbiting Human Circus</a>. In 2008, he released <a href='https://juliankoster.bandcamp.com/album/the-singing-saw-at-christmastime'>The Singing Saw at Christmastime</a>, 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.</p> <p>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. </p> <p>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<a href='https://music.apple.com/us/album/ukrainian-christmas-songs/277990075'> Folksways compilation of Ukrainian Christmas songs</a>. The song we hear is "The Miracle of the Birth."</p>