Arthur Morgan "Arto" Lindsay (born May 28, 1953) is an American guitarist, singer, record producer and experimental composer. He was a member of the pioneering 1970s no wave group DNA, which featured on the 1978 compilation No New York. In the 1980s, he formed the group Ambitious Lovers. He also performed with the Golden Palominos and the Lounge Lizards. He has a distinctive soft voice and an often noisy, self-taught guitar style consisting almost entirely of unconventional extended techniques, described by Brian Olewnick as "studiedly naïve ... sounding like the bastard child of Derek Bailey".

Music

Although Lindsay was born in the United States, he grew up in Brazil. In the late 1970s, he helped form the no wave band DNA with Ikue Mori and Robin Crutchfield, although Tim Wright of Pere Ubu soon replaced Crutchfield. In 1978, DNA was featured on the four-band sampler No New York (produced by Brian Eno). In the early 1980s, Lindsay performed on early albums by The Lounge Lizards and The Golden Palominos. "He's never lost his interest in weirdness," Robert Christgau wrote, "even ran the Kitchen for a year, and in the eighties his unschooled guitar was in demand all over downtown as he radiated out from the overlapping John Lurie, Anton Fier, John Zorn, and Kip Hanrahan circles to enterprising jazz and funk guys as well as Cuban drummers..." After the Lounge Lizards, Lindsay and keyboardist Peter Scherer formed the Ambitious Lovers, influenced by pop, samba, and bossa nova. In an interview with Bomb magazine, Linsday said, "the whole idea was Al Green and samba. That against this; this against that; not a blend, a juxtaposition, loud/soft. There's no particular point in putting these things together. The point is what comes out in the end." The band's albums included Envy, Greed, and Lust.

Producer

Lindsay began his experience as producer in 1981 working with Italian No wave band Hi-Fi Bros. He has produced recordings by Brazilian musicians Caetano Veloso, Tom Zé, Vinicius Cantuária, Gal Costa, Carlinhos Brown, Marisa Monte, Adriana Calcanhotto, Orquestra Contemporânea de Olinda and Lucas Santtana. He also co-produced the first album of Anarchist Republic of Bzzz, and CHASM by Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Collaborations

Lindsay lent his talents to the 1993 opera Agamemnon and to Jun Miyake's Stolen From Strangers album (2008), providing vocals and guitar on the album's opener "Alviveride" as well as on "O Fim", "Turn Back" and "Outros Escuros". For Performa 09, the third edition of the Performa Biennial, Lindsay created Somewhere I Read collaborating with the choreographer Lily Baldwin. In 2013, Lindsay sang on "I Guess We're Floating" by Stephon Alexander and Rioux. The song was released on the album Here Comes Now in August 2014 by Connect Records.

Exhibition

Discography

More or less comprehensive, this discography integrates all recordings as a leader, band projects and contributions to albums by other musicians. Lindsay's own work can simply be singled out by sorting "Leading artist". Minor contributions may only be mentioned in the notes of an earlier album of the respective artist. The No New York compilation is added due to its significance. Later compilations of older material are listed with the recording year followed by the release date in brackets. Within a year the albums are sorted alphabetically by artist not by specified dates. (Leading artist sorts by first name.)