One-Man Band Uses the Principles of Puppetry to Wow Audiences With His Performances

While a soulful music performance can be achieved with just a single instrument, it's hard to beat having several instruments play in harmony. But that doesn't always mean having an individual player for each of them. Argentinian artist Santiago Moreno is the perfect example of this. He performs as a one-man band as part of a France-based theater company called La Mue/tte. During this 30-minute stint, he plays the guitar and relies on a series of strings and pulleys to play the percussion on his back. The result evokes the charm and complexity of Latin American rhythms like bolero and tango. It's hard to believe Moreno does it all on his own.

To make everything work, Moreno relies on the principles of puppetry as he carefully coordinates his movements to get the desired sequence of sounds from his many instruments. His act is a full-body performance that requires a lot of planning and concentration, yet he seems to be having the time of his life; he draws crowds with his charisma wherever he plays, whether it is the street or a proscenium.

Moreno started performing as a one-man band in 2014, and the act has sprouted variations that include even more puppetry, such as Les intimites de l'homme orchestre (“The intimacy of the one-man orchestra”). It features a table puppet and other small inventions.  There's also The False Orchestra, in which Moreno attaches a puppet to the rear of his body as if were performing back-to-back with another musician.

If you want to stay up with Moreno and his music and puppetry performances, you can follow him on Instagram.

Argentinian artist Santiago Moreno performs as a one-man band, relying on the principles of puppetry to play music that evokes complex Latin American rhythms.

A video of him performing as a one-man band made waves on Reddit, where it earned over 15,000 upvotes.

Santiago Moreno: Instagram
La Mue/tte: Website|Instagram

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Regina Sienra

Regina Sienra is a Contributing Writer at My Modern Met. Based in Mexico City, Mexico, she holds a bachelor’s degree in Communications with specialization in Journalism from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She has 10+ years’ experience in Digital Media, writing for outlets in both English and Spanish. Her love for the creative arts—especially music and film—drives her forward every day.
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