One Pig: One Vegetarian's Nightmare

Electronic musician Matthew Herbert's latest project, One Pig, turns the life - and death - of a pig into one hectic, conceptually confronting, album. Using the sounds of his chosen pig in a barn, musical instruments made from the pig's blood, skin and ears, and the pork for, um, artery clogging, now you, too, can listen to Herbert's pork feast, long after its death.

Herbert first announced the project in 2009 on his website with the following, incredibly wanky, post:
 

in 2010 i will release a record entitled 'the pig'

it will be made up entirely of sounds made during the life cycle of a pig.

i will be there at its birth

during its life

present at its death

and during the butchery process.

its body will then be given to chefs new and old

there will be a feast it will all be recorded

and then turned in to music

meanwhile i await a call from the farm in kent to let me know that my pig is on its way. i will rush there with a camera and a tape recorder.

in herbert's honour, ive removed my capital letters, just to see if my prose becomes more poetic.

(gosh so this is tumblr hey)

i am oyster's resident vegetarian

when i read about one pig i almost vomited

i listened to the album and it scared me

i described it to my mum and almost cried

she told me, 'it sounds like a real ripsnorter!'

and told me i could use that joke in my article

mum lives on a meat farm

i dedicate this post to her

as i bring you the following sporktacular review:

herbert is a modern-day doctor frankenswine

he is an alright pigcussionist

to peta, he represents the aporkalypse

because he went the whole hog

i think he is not actually the wurst

but a little ham-handed

how will he bring home the bacon

when you can trot over to the guardian

and stream the whole thing online

Words: Madeleine Atkins

matthewherbert.com