PUTNEY — As part of the Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp’s first time touring the U.S., the band will be performing in Southern Vermont as part of Next Stage Arts’ Bandwagon Series.
“We’re playing a few new songs we never played,” said Vincent Bertholet, who founded the group and plays double bass. Bertholet said the band has never played in the U.S. before this tour and its booking agent found the date in Putney.
The band mixes “free jazz, post-punk, highlife, brass band, symphonic mixtures and kraut rock,” according to an event announcement. The musicians are playing at 5 p.m. Saturday at The Putney Inn as part of Next Stage Arts’ Bandwagon Series, and 5 p.m. Sunday at Earth Sky Time Community Farm in Manchester as part of the farm’s summer concert series.
Bertholet, who also performs in the minimalist trance-pop duo Hyperculte based in Switzerland, founded the Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp in 2006. The band “embraces the forms of its musicians while pushing them to their limits,” resulting in “a powerful, experimental, unstable and terribly alive, organic sound,” according to the announcement.
“Transcendental, almost ritualistic, the music is coupled with powerful lyrics, declaimed in rage against a world that is falling apart,” the announcement states.
Having a large band was a dream of Bertholet’s. He said it had taken about 10 years to achieve the size he wanted.
Bertholet writes the music for the band, using his computer and a Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) keyboard.
“Once I have the music, we do residencies all together,” he said. “I give the parts to every musician, and we build the song.”
Liz Moscarola, lead vocalist and only member in the band since its beginning, adds vocal melodies. She asks different friends to write the words, Bertholet said.
This year, the band is working on new songs.
“We’re going to play a few of them during this tour,” he said.
The plan is record a new album in January and release it at the end of 2024.
The Bandwagon Summer Series is billed as “a family-friendly outdoor cultural performance series running from early May through mid-October.” More than 20 performances were scheduled this summer at ball fields, farms, and parks throughout Windham County, with food sold on site.
Earth Sky Time hosts concerts every other Sunday, rain or shine. Beer, wine, pizza and desserts are available.
