Be sure to reach the end of this article to see the full video!

There have been many, many covers of Sound of Silence over the last 50 years. But this cover may be the most unique.

Simon and Garfunkel’s Sound of Silence still has the ability to capture the imaginations of musicians all over the world.

It’s the sort of song that inspires people to make music! That means that people will probably still be covering it hundreds of years from now.

When Etienne de Lavaulx found a five chord zither made in East Germany in the 60s or 70s, he knew that Sound of Silence would be the perfect song to play on this special instrument.

You may not be familiar with zithers. They’re stringed instruments, like guitars. But unlike guitars, they don’t have long necks. They can also have a lot more strings than a guitar, with some having 80 strings!

So would this East German zither give Sound of Silence a communistic feel? Etienne de Lavaulx put it to the test.

The musician began plucking the opening chords to the song. The song’s haunting tune was coming through, and by all means it sounded amazing.

Instead of sounding like something to come from behind the Iron Curtain, the instrument had a distinctively medieval feel to it.

As he kept on playing, the sound became warmer. The instrument gave the song an alpine quality, like something that would be played over footage of the Alps.

Etienne de Lavaulx was impressed with this performance. He decided to upload footage of it to YouTube to see what people thought. He was shocked when the video went viral.

To date, the video has gained over 2.5 million views. It also has more than 51,000 likes and 1,500 comments. People have been saying things like this:

Etienne de Lavaulx has many more videos on YouTube of his zither performances.

He has played all sorts of songs on zithers that he finds from all over the world. His cover of The Sound of Silence is by far his most popular video.

It’s interesting to note that some of Etienne de Lavaulx’s contemporary covers have really fallen flat compared to his Sound of Silence cover.

For instance, in two years, his cover of Imagine has gained only 2,300 views.

That isn’t an insult to the musician. His cover of the song is great, but something about Imagine on a zither just doesn’t appear to resonate with people like Sound of Silence on a zither. Perhaps Sound of Silence was really just a medieval song in 60s folk clothing all this time?

Etienne de Lavaulx’s covers really show off the zither for the amazing instrument it really is.

There’s so much variance in them. They look incredible and sound even better. There aren’t many companies out there that make zithers today. But there are many used ones currently for sale online. And let’s be honest, the current quarantine means that right now is the perfect time to take up a new hobby. So why not while the days indoors away with a zither? Just imagine getting out of this and showing off your zither skills to all your friends!

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Source: Etienne de Lavaulx, The Guardian,