April 21st, 2011: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEW YORK: Terry Dame & ELECTRIC JUNKYARD GAMELAN announces Spring 2011 National Tour April 29-May 9, 2011

Electric Junkyard Gamelan plays the original groove driven music of composer Terry Dame on musical instruments of her invention. Hypnotic melodies & syncopated strings ride over funky bass lines and layers of interlocking percussion. Performing on original musical creations fabricated mostly from recycled materials such as the Rubarp, Kachapitar, Terraphone and Clayrimba these four musicians produce a captivating musical and visual experience for all ages. Featuring musicians Terry Dame, Mary Feaster, Lee Free & Julian Hintz.
"…transporting...beautiful and inspired sounds" -Village Voice

"Terry Dame is one of those eccentric musicians for whom composing isn't
enough, she has to create new instruments as well. A downtown fixture."
-Time Out New York

Contact:
Terry Dame
646-369-6220
Website:www.electricjunkyardgamelan.com
Email:Electricjunkyardgamelan@gmail.com

Tour Schedule
Friday, April 29th, 9pm
TransModern Festival
Baltimore, MD
www.transmodernfestival.org/

Saturday, April 30th, 4pm
Some Kind of Jam 5 Music Festival
Schuulkill Haven, PA
www.jibberjazz.com/skoj5.html

Sunday, May 1, 5pm
May Day Party @
Lemon Grove Café
Youngstown, OH
www.lemongrovecafe.com/

Monday, May 2nd, 7pm
Hat Trick Concert Series
Grand Rapids, MI
http://www.onetrick.biz/hattrick

Wednesday May 4, 8-9am
Fox8 Cleveland Morning Show
www.fox8.com/news/morningshow

Wednesday May 4, 9pm
Beachland Ballroom
Cleveland, OH

Friday, May 6, 7pm
Friday Night Live
Detroit Institute of Art
Detroit, MI
http://www.dia.org

Saturday, May 7th, 8pm
Mayne Stage
presented by SoundCulture
Chicago, IL
http://soundculturechicago.com/

Sunday, May 8th, 8pm
Black Sparrow Pub
Lafayette, IN
www.blacksparrowpub.com

Monday, May 9nd, 7pm
Ann Arbor District Library
Ann Arbor, MI

ABOUT THE GROUP
Led by composer and multi-instrumentalist Terry Dame, Electric Junkyard Gamelan plays original groove-driven music on invented instruments and objects.
With instruments fashioned from rubber bands and coat hangers, bed frames, old farm equipment, turntable platters, saw blades and truck springs these four musicians play hypnotizing melodies and syncopated strings that ride on funky bass lines and layers of interlocking rhythms. Formed in 1998 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 eastern modal styles to hip-hop all shaped by Dame’s unique sensibility and humor. The group performs on 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 bed frames, 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 sounds they produce.

ABOUT TERRY DAME
With EJYG, Dame fuses her two passions, making music and inventing and building things. While studying Balinese Gamelan in graduate school in 1997, she became intrigued with the interlocking rhythms and the amazing ring of overtones created by the ensemble of metal gongs and xylophone-type instruments used in traditional Balinese music. An inventor by nature, she began experimenting with making mainly percussion instruments out of objects. For her thesis project she created a full-length concert on these object instruments that included a piece for kitchen implements and a piece on office supplies and machines. 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 accomplishments 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.

ABOUT THE ENSEMBLE
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, Lee Free 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. Lee Free is a classically trained percussionist; drum set player and songwriter.

PAST PERFORMANCES
EJYG has been performing together since 1998. The highly adaptable group has performed at every type of venue possible from prestigious art centers and museums (MoMA-NYC, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Kitchen in New York City) to experimental music venues (The Stone, NYC and Barbes, Brooklyn) to rock clubs (The Knitting Factory and CBGB's) to underground music parties and outdoor festivals.

PRESS CUTTINGS
"Electric Junkyard Gamelan makes music that is the product of a highly personal vision, and Dame's originality is alone enough reason to come check out the Big Barp in person". --James Heflin, Valley Advocate

"Electric Junkyard Gamelan makes music so original they had to create their own instruments to play it.
Its wild enough to please fans...regardless of genre".
--Global Rhythms Magazine

"transporting...beautiful and inspired sounds"
--Alisa Soloman, Village Voice, NYC

"Dame has created a panoply of homemade instruments that are not only visually fascinating but sonically stunning."
-- Iris Hiskey Arno, The Rivertowns Enterprise, Hastings, NY

“ a scattered mix of foreign music that mixes jangling and banging with worldly sounds. The EJG definitely knows what it’s playing. It never feels disjointed or awkward, but always feels out of this world; at times natural, earthy...” --Michael Levy, New Haven Advocate"

...rhythmic, near-hypnotic music." --HX Magazine

"Terry Dame is one of those eccentric musicians for whom composing isn’t enough, she has to create new instruments as well. A downtown fixture."
--Time Out New York

 

  Return to EPK page