Adam Plack is an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n-born didgeridoo

Didgeridoo

The didgeridoo is a wind instrument developed by Indigenous Australians of northern Australia around 1,500 years ago and still in widespread usage today both in Australia and around the world. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet or "drone pipe"...

 player and recording artist. He is originally from Camberwell

Camberwell, Victoria

Camberwell is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 9 km east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Boroondara. At the 2006 Census, Camberwell had a population of 19,637....

 in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, but moved to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in 1994.

Plack comes from a family of classical musicians. He studied classical violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

, piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

, guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, and voice from a young age. He also enjoyed the improvisations on his father's jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 records and eventually turned toward nature sounds for inspiration. He picked up the didgeridoo in the early 1990s, after being inspired by hearing a world beat

Worldbeat

Worldbeat is a music genre that primarily refers to a blending of Western pop music with traditional/folk or world music influences...

 song by Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel

Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...

 and Youssou N'Dour

Youssou N'Dour

Youssou N'Dour is a Senegalese singer, percussionist and occasional actor. In 2004, Rolling Stone described him as, in Senegal and much of Africa, "perhaps the most famous singer alive." He helped develop a style of popular music in Senegal, known in the Serer language as mbalax, a type of music...

.

Plack has often performed and recorded under the name "Nomad." He has participated in a number of cross-cultural music projects, including the No World Improvisations ensemble (with Jin Hi Kim

Jin Hi Kim

Kim Jin-Hi is a geomungo player and composer.She is known for introducing the geomungo to the wider world through her contemporary chamber and orchestral compositions and large-scale multimedia pieces, as well as her extensive work in avant-garde and cross-cultural free...

, Joseph Celli

Joseph Celli

Joseph Celli is an American musician and composer specializing in contemporary and improvised music for oboe and English horn...

, and Mor Thiam

Mor Thiam

Mor Thiam is a Senegalese drummer, cultural historian, entertainment consultant and is the father of the famed singer Akon . His surname is pronounced "Chahm."...

). He has also released several recordings of meditation music with Deepak Chopra

Deepak Chopra

Deepak Chopra is an Indian medical doctor, public speaker, and writer on subjects such as spirituality, Ayurveda and mind-body medicine. Chopra began his career as an endocrinologist and later shifted his focus to alternative medicine. Chopra now runs his own medical center, with a focus on...

, including A Gift of Love (1998), which consists of translations of the poems of Rumi

Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī , also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī and popularly known as Mevlānā in Turkey and Mawlānā in Iran and Afghanistan but known to the English-speaking world simply as Rumi was a 13th-century Persian Muslim poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic...

. He has recorded with Johnny "White Ant" Soames, from whom he purchased his first didgeridoo at the crafts fair at St Kilda

St Kilda, Victoria

St Kilda is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 6 km south from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Port Phillip...

, a suburb of Melbourne. He has also collaborated with David Gulpilil

David Gulpilil

David Gulpilil Ridjimiraril Dalaithngu , is an Indigenous Australian traditional dancer and actor. His first starring role was Walkabout....

 and other Aboriginal

Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....

 musicians of Arnhem Land

Arnhem Land

The Arnhem Land Region is one of the five regions of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around 500 km from the territory capital Darwin. The region has an area of 97,000 km² which also covers the area of Kakadu National...

, Northern Territory

Northern Territory

The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...

.

Plack's single "With You" reached Number 2 on the Billboard dance charts and won the 2001 ASCAP Dance award.

He is currently writing a children's book.

Plack lives in Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

 with his wife, actress Sonja Sohn.

As Nomad

• Nomad (1994) (Australian Music International)
• Songman (2002), with the Ramingining Songmen (Australian Music International)

With Johnny (White Ant) Soames

• Dawn Until Dusk (1992), with Ku-Ku Yalanji & Ku-Ku Imaji Tribes (Australian Music International)
• Winds of Warning (1994) (Australian Music International)

As contributor

• A Gift of Love: Deepak & Friends Present Music Inspired by the Love Poems of Rumi (1998) (Rasa Music)
• Buddha-Bar, Vol. 2 (2000)
• Rasa: Exotica (2001)
• The Soul of Healing Meditations (2001) (Rasa Music)
• Waves (1991)
• The Best of Lounge Music (2002)
• Coco de Mer (2002)
• A Gift of Love II: Oceans of Ecstasy (2002) (Rasa Music)
• Karma Collection (2002)
• Namaste Experience (2002)
• Je Nous Aime (2003)
• Rasa: Exotica II (2003)
• Rasa Mello II (2003)
• Chakra Balancing: Mind, Body and Soul (2004) (Rasa Music)
• Music of Undertow (2004)
• Revive: Music to Restore Balance & Wellbeing (2005)
• Rasa: Exotica, Vol. 3 (2006)
• Rasa Mello, Vol. 3 (2006)
• Relax, Vol. 2: Sublime Music for Reading and Lounging (2006)

External links

• Adam Plack interview
• Australian Music International site
• [ Adam Plack page] at Allmusic
• [ Adam Plack discography] at Allmusic
• Adam Plack photos

Listening

• Adam Plack audio, rec. live at WNYC, November 1992 (scroll to 26 minutes to listen)

See also

• Didgeridoo
  Didgeridoo
  The didgeridoo is a wind instrument developed by Indigenous Australians of northern Australia around 1,500 years ago and still in widespread usage today both in Australia and around the world. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet or "drone pipe"...