She looks more like a rock star than a classical cellist. When speaking, she sounds like a total sweetheart, very intelligent and tech savvy, and enthusiastic about her life.
But what about her music?
It’s amazing.
Jad Abumrad of Radiolab dubbed her the "Quantum Cellist" and I suppose that fits in a way — the music is all her, just her, but sounds like an entire ensemble — but to me her music is Zen. Pure of heart, spirit, and thought. Zoe Keating’s music is pure Zoe Keating.
I actually change the genre of the music in my collection, to make it easier to sync various types for various moods, and my most favorite assigned "genre" is Zen. The music I assign to that keyword is only that which I absolutely love. The two albums I bought of Zoe’s off of iTunes were pigeonholed differently, one as (I think) Ambient, the other Classical.
Now they’re both Zen.
The cello is one of my favorite instruments, the sound so rich and human, with such a wonderful range of timber. Zoe uses this full range, even to the point of using it for percussion, her playing absolutely brilliant and even beyond brilliant. Using technology and a laptop, she creates loops of what she plays, then plays along with those loops, each building off each other.
It’s amazing what she does. Each song starts off simply, then builds on itself, layer by layer — and we’re not talking in a studio, here, she does this live — the voice of the cello is so pure, and fun, and lyrical, and romantic, it gives me chills listening to it.
Here is a person who loves what she does, and puts that love into her creations. You can hear this plainly. You can also hear creative genius in the music as she’s weaving it, layer by layer, note by note. I can’t help but think this is how she lives her life as well, building on it layer by layer, expressing what she feels, truly creating herself as she goes. For this, too, I applaud her.
To actually hear Zoe’s music, and also links to videos and podcasts, visit her website at ZoeKeating.com.
