100 Percent Solar Powered Music, Brought to You by Turtuga Blanku
by Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York 
on 10. 4.08
Caribbean musician Turtuga Blanku (it translates into “White Turtle”) plays music powered by the sun. Literally. He records his blend of rock, reggae, and pop in a studio completely powered by photovoltaic cells, proving you can always count on finding solar power in strange places. Looks like Cloud Cult has got itself some competition for the title of greenest musical act out there. In fact, the entire production process for Blanku’s tunes is solar-powered—not an easy feat, but for a musician this dedicated to environmentally conscious music, sacrifices must be made.
The Solar Powered Music of the Green Machine
Blanku records in the Green Machine, a studio run only by solar power. It’s got four pairs of solar panels on the roof that soak up sun during the day, and store them in a battery so the studio can operate by night. Blanku keeps the recording process simple to make it solar power friendly. He eschews an overload of instruments, and instead keeps it basic—using recording hardware only for drums, bass, guitar, piano and voice, and relying on software for the rest. That bare bones approach is increasingly rare in this age of digital studio experimenting, but Blanku turns the circumstances to his favor by focusing on well-developed guitar hooks and rhythms and lush piano melodies.
And the result is, well, sunny. The catchy, exuberant tunes sound bright and joyous—conjuring images of an ideal Caribbean summer spent soaking up the sun. Coincidence? I think not.
Check out the sun-drenched tunes for yourself on Turtuga Blanku’s website.
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That is so cool and original. And let's not forget the music sounds original and inovative too. I hope to hear a lot more in the near future.
This guy better watch his back. The Arabs, Venezuelans & Russians alike will be trying to get revenge for not using their stuff to produce his music......just kidding.
Maybe a few million i-pods will solar cells would also help the cause......that would really be kuhl......C`mon woz do your thing!!
Anyway, keep up the good work!!
So, being solar powered, on his world tour this guy only plays in truly sunny countries, right?
heh, it even SOUNDS sunny! :D
(I'm loving the webdesign too, by the way)
The PV powered studio is not the only thing that's cool about Turtuga Blanku... the music is awesome as well.
This was very awesome and original......
When Jack Johnson did it on his last album that was recorded over a year ago
@SpecialEd: That's great SpecialEd, I hope a lot more artists (and other people) will join in.
THIS is what we need, people who are GREEN on their own and do not wait until the solution arrives, Kudos to Turtuga Blanku! Apart from that, his music is awesome. Keep up tha good work!
I like it! :)
Nice one, Turtuga:
"the great thing about solar energy is you're only wasting it if you’re not using it."
And you're using it for music!
great!
maybe he can do a cover of the doors' 'waiting for the sun'