Zappa.com

Also, did he do any compositional work with the recordings on the synclavier?

Also, did he do any compositional work with the recordings on the synclavier?

Yep, one track => Dio Fa on Civilization Phaze 3

In addition to the Tuvan singers, did he also have interest in overtone singing of other cultures such as that of Sardinia?

dm: what about music from africa? do you ever listen to the tribal stuff?

fz: yeah. I've heard it, but I'm... a lot of people are fascinated by the rhythm, but the rhythm of it is not so exciting to me. I'm not as interested in african music as l am in bulgarian or sardinian or indian music. I think a lot of people listen to african music and want to consume it in the same way that they would consume a u.s. drum machine record. that fancy constant rhythm. and my taste in rhythm goes in other directions.

mg: didn't you attend a concert of the bulgarian women when they came here? did you meet them?

fz: it was a fairly frightening experience. they take a few musicians along with them. there's a guy who plays some kind of a drum-like thing or guitar-like thing but it looked to me like these guys were bulgarian kgb, like they were watchdogs for the group. they had the special look, the black leather coat. and they were hanging out backstage, and when it was done, after the concert, the girls were in the dressing room. they were kind of lined up in a formal reception thing and we got to come in and say hello, and then we were ushered out. you couldn't really have any communication with them.

I always thought the Crab-Grass Baby on Thing-Fish was done with bits of the Tuvan singers put together so it would sound like it does, anyone knows if that's the case?

It's was the first time he used the Synclavier. But I don't know about sounding like the singers.

To put to put to rest the "how did he do that?" thread regarding the voice of the crabgrass baby from "Thing Fish":
Keyboard Magazine February 1987 page 69-
Q: Was Francesco the first thing you had done with the Synclavier?
FZ: No, the first thing I did with the Synclavier is on Thing-Fish. Listen to the "Crabgrass Baby" track, which opens up Act II. The background vocals are a repeated vocal chant with this computer voice singing over it. The computer voice is done with a little card that fits into an IBM computer, and the stereo background vocals were our first attempt at stereo sampling using the mono system.
(I found it here, but not sure what it means)