Electric Junkyard Gamelan at RAG
Prepare for a night of music that is as visually stimulating as it is melodic, funky, rocking and guaranteed to keep you grooving in the aisles. On Saturday, July 26th at 8 pm The Electric Junkyard Gamelan comes to the Roxbury Arts Group. $10. (607) 326-7908.
The group plays original groove driven music played on self-invented instruments fashioned from coat hangers and rubber bands, bed frames, old farm equipment, turntable platters, clay pots, saw blades and truck springs Its four musicians play haunting modal melodies that float over funky bass lines and layers of danceable interlocking rhythms.
Formed in 1998 by composer, multi-instrumentalist and instrument builder Terry Dame, Electric Junkyard Gamelan is a four-piece ensemble that performs original compositions on sculpturally striking instruments invented by Ms. Dame. Its style was initially inspired by traditional Gamelan music of Indonesia but today incorporates influences from funk to Indian classical, Klezmer to hiphop. The music is shaped by the sensibility and humor of this unique composer.
The group performs on Dame's innovative instruments such as the Rubarp and Big Barp (electric rubber band harps), the Sitello (an electric cello/sitar combo), the Terraphone (copper pipe horn), the Clayrimba (a three octave tuned clay pot "marimba") and an arsenal of percussion instruments fashioned from kitchen ware, old farm equipment, turntable platters and truck springs. The result is a super original sound with haunting melodies, funky bass lines and layers of danceable interlocking rhythms that ride over clashes of metal on metal and colorful harmonic washes. Audiences are transfixed by the beauty of the unusual collection of instruments on stage and the amazing array of unique sounds they produce.
Terry Dame, a native of Huntington, MA is a saxophonist and composer by training. She has studied music from around the world including Indonesia, the Middle East, the Balkans and India. Ms. Dame has been living and working in New York City since 1985, composing and performing for film, video, theater, dance, and concerts.
Recent collaborations include the score for Maria Maggenti's new feature film Puccini for Beginners that premiered in competition at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and was theatrically released in early February 2007. She was also chosen to be a 2006 Sundance Institute Composer Lab Fellow.
Dame was the music director, composer and saxophonist with the seven-piece new music group Monkey on a Rail from 1998-2002 and a founding member of the improvisation trio Trophy Wife. She was composer in residence and saxophonist with Jennifer Miller's New York based Circus Amok from 1994-2004. She is also a member of Gamelan Dharma Sara, the traditional Balinese Gamelan based at the Indonesian Consulate in New York City, and Paprika, Brooklyn's acclaimed all-female international dance music band. She was an artist in residence at HERE Art Center in New York City during 2003 & 2004 and has received commissioning funds from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, The Rockefeller Foundation, New York State Council for the Arts and the Meet the Composer Fund.
The four musicians in EJYG hail from diverse musical backgrounds. Terry Dame met Julian Hintz aka Julz A, a singer, accordionist and classically trained percussionist, while in grad school at Cal Arts. Mary Feaster and Dame met while playing together in the Circus Amok Band. Feaster, also a member of the trio Trophy Wife, is a bassist who plays everything from punk to funk, Latin and Klezmer. Kim Garey is a classically trained percussionist and jazz drummer.
EJYG has been performing together since 1998. The highly adaptable group performs at some of the finest venues in NYC area including The Kitchen, The Stone, Barbes, Zebulon, The Knitting Factory, Galapagos and nationally at The Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Linda Norris Auditorium (Albany), Amazing Things Art Center (MA), Donald L. Oat Theater (CT) , Vermont Arts Exchange (VT), Creative Alliance(Baltimore), Pioneer Arts of Easthampton, Vintage Virginia Wine Festival .to underground music parties and outdoor family festivals. The group has two recordings to date. A live album “Live from HERE” released in 2007 and a self-titled debut album released in 2002.