One doesnt normally think of the tuba as a sexy, dark electronic instrument, fronting a megalithic industrial soundscape band. Here Michael Vogt, lead tuba player with the Berlin Symphony orchestra, seems to have done just that. One very childish trace is my wish to be Jimi Hendrix playing the tuba, he says. Its a turn of events that must have therather conventional Tubby The Tuba, a staple of childrens novelty tunes from the 1950s, turning in his grave. The story of Tubby, however, was also that of a tuba who wanted to carry the melody line, so this turns out to be extremely appropriate. In Argonautika the melodies are restrained fanfares, rather in the manner of a Laibach opera. At other times the tuba is played through a vocoder, or processed electronically to sound like a fuzz metal guitar. Theres a series of disturbing, threatening electronic environments through which the tuba stalks; occasionally the raw brass of the tuba cuts through, summoning up a lost classicism that only intensifies the gothic atmosphere. He often performs concerts on the electrified tuba, and fulfills commissions for compositions. He lives with his familiy in an old farm building in Triepkendorf, Mecklenburg