Event

Electric Junkyard Gamelan

Come early and visit the VAE Studios as they gear up
for SUMMER ART CAMPS !

Electric Junkyard Gamelan is the brainchild of band leader, composer and instrument builder Terry Dame. Performing her original groove-driven music on self-invented instruments this unique band has a distinct voice that is at once both old and new.

Originally inspired by the interlocking rhythms of traditional Gamelan music from Bali, today the group's music is influenced by a diverse range of sounds from eastern modal music to funk, klezmer to hip hop. They perform 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 old farm equipment, turntable platters, saw blades, and truck springs. The result is a super original sound with lilting modal melodies, syncopated strings, funky bass lines and layers of dance-able interlocking rhythms that ride over clashes of metal on metal and colorful harmonic washes. Audiences are transfixed by the beauty and strangeness of the unusual collection of instruments on stage and the amazing array of sounds they produce.