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

By Regina Sienra on April 30, 2023

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Una publicación compartida por Santiago Moreno (@san_tiagorquesta)

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.