Amidst the credits of many records from Elephant Six Collective bands like Olivia Tremor Control, Neutral Milk Hotel, and the Music Tapes is the name of one man: Julian Koster. Koster is a whimsical multi-instrumentalist and storyteller with an undying enthusiasm for the singing saw. Koster is probably most famous for his contributions of singing saw and compositional skill to the band Neutral Milk Hotel’s seminal release In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, from 1998. But, since the explosion which was that album and the eventual disbanding of NMH, Koster has gone on to lead a career that seems straight out of a storybook—including writing and scoring a fantasy audio drama, exploring centuries-old recording techniques, and touring with his own carnivalesque side-show tent.

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Koster was fairly quiet for years after NMH disbanded, but caught the attention of critics once more in 2008 with the release of Music Tapes for Clouds and Tornadoes and in 2012 with the release of Mary’s Voice, both under the moniker of the Music Tapes. With the release of Mary’s Voice, Koster announced the Traveling Imaginary tour—an idea long in the making for which he raised over $17,000 on Kickstarter and sold the banjo he played in NMH to fund. The project received a lot of attention, because he was building a portable venue that he and his band would set up in different locations. They would arrive in town one day and set it up, play the next day, and take it down and leave on the third day. It was meant to help transport concert-goers to Koster’s dreamy reality.

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