NPR News and Music Discovery for the Four Corners

Manatee Commune: A Solo Violist Hears Symphonies In Wires

Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio

Manatee Commune.

A man stands in a small room, his whole body moving to the electronic beat he's creating. It's a typical room with a bookshelf, a lamp and dark curtains on the walls. But after a few minutes, something unexpected happens — the walls are lifted away to reveal a breathtaking view from the top of a cliff.

The man responsible for that sound is Grant Eadie, also known as the electronic artist Manatee Commune. And that video was his submission to NPR Music's Tiny Desk Concert Contest, which was held back in January. He didn't win the final prize, but Eadie was included among 10 of our favorite entries.

At the audio link, Eadie tells NPR's Rachel Martin about filming his contest entry against the grandeur of nature, choosing the viola over the violin growing up, and the common threads between electronic and classical music: "I feel like I could play with a symphony if I really wanted to," he says.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Related Stories
  1. Arizona legislature votes to repeal the state's Civil War-era ban on abortion
  2. Who will pay to replace Baltimore's Key Bridge? The legal battle has already begun
  3. Amazon, Target and other retailers pull weighted infant sleepwear over safety fears
  4. Pregant women in some states aren't permitted to legally finalize divorces