SCRAP ARTS MUSIC

November 25, 2012 | By Sid Smith, Special to the Tribune

The Vancouver-based group ScrapArtsMusic consists of only five performers who nevertheless manage a feverish percussion spectacle, playing on instruments co- artistic director Gregory Kozak invented and fashioned from salvage material.

It comes down to watching a drum ensemble supplemented with large metallic curlicues, homemade xylophones, battered tin plates, artillery shells and one singular artificial tree wrapped in a spiral of balloons suggesting bright red coconuts. It's a version of found art — or found "Stomp!" if you want to invoke its venerable ancestor, which redefined back in the '90s how percussion and stage movement could combine for a new kind of show.

That zeitgeist may no longer be new, but it's still intoxicating, and ScrapArtsMusic certainly offers its own take. Saturday, the quintet, performing at the Harris Theater as part of the Chicago Human Rhythm Project's Global Rhythms endeavor, whiled away 75 minutes at the very least and made some of them super-charged. What's surprising even now is how the tradition of this approach mixes music and dance — this is far removed from an ensemble just sitting and playing on stage.

Every move, every entry and exit, every detail is carefully choreographed, including the way the performers sail onstage on platforms with rollers, as well as the fetching shifts they make in one late session, magically circling around the instruments and each other. They beat their instruments indefatigably, to be sure — their drumsticks occasionally break into shards and fly away. But in one seductive bit, the drummers also jump — and in unison.

Meanwhile, the scrap-heap resource of their instrumentation is more than a gimmick. Sure, their instruments make noises that resemble classic percussion sounds, but it's the term "resemble" that's key. The ear enjoys the similarities but hones in on the differences, too: An underlying theme is that there's both a wondrous variety and reassuring sameness to the percussive arts all at once.

Not every minute is golden, and the group falls victim to a problem with all these enterprises, stretches here and there that seem redundant. But the four men, joined by one ferociously energetic woman, Christa Mercey, counter that with their frequently imp-like and mischievous stage personalities, slyly inviting more and more applause on a regular basis. By the end, the audience needs no prompting. - CHICAGO TRIBUNE

&#9733 &#9733 &#9733 &#9733 &#9733 [Out Of Five]
WSO New Music Festival
Centennial Concert Hall, Feb. 5, 2009
Attendance: 889

While the rest of us cycle, run or push weights to keep in shape, Gregory Kozak and his unique percussion group ScrapArtsMusic get an impressive workout every time they step onstage.

Simon Thomsen. Greg Samek, Christa Mercey and Spencer Cole joined Kozak for a breathtakingly athletic performance at Thursday night's penultimate WSO New Music Festival concert named for the ensemble. AN audience heavy on young people thrilled to the sights, sounds and moves of this truly original group that shows there are no limits to the musical imagination.

Vancouverite Kozak co-founded and created ScrapArtsMusic in 1998 with Justine Murdy. Kozak, self-described as "a percussion virtuoso with a talent for welding," designed and built the 145-plus instruments the quintet plays, composed the music and choreography. Murdy handles lighting, instrument and costume design –- black outfits with armbands, which could double as supportive braces for the percussion boot camp.

Using industrial scrap and everything from artillery shells, accordion parts and brass sheets to balloons, dishwasher hoses and bagpipe reeds, Kozak just may have single-handedly performed a million acts of green. Who knew that scrap yards and dumps were treasure troves for the makings of new and marvelous musical instruments?

The group mesmerized the audience from the opening number "Whorlies", named for the instruments they used – lengths of bilge hose spun around to produce eerie humming notes. The faster they spun, the higher the pitch.

The action never stopped throughout the 85-minute show – the troupe quickly rolling out instruments and setting them up in different configurations. Dry ice wafted smoke across the stage and innovative lighting formed effective silhouettes of the artists as they leapt, twisted, turned and attacked their instruments.

Dancing, hollering performers vigorously beat drums made from irrigation hose and plumbing coupling joints.

By now you're getting the idea of the uniqueness of this entire concept. Kozak is a kind of mad scientist when it comes to instrument invention.

But as impressive as all the instruments were, the performers themselves stole the show with their cheerful and technical prowess. High kicking, virtuosic and adrenaline-packed, this was an event in itself -- one we won't soon forget.

By Gwenda Nemerofsky - WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

As a theatre studies graduate, I’m always excited to meet others who share my enthusiasm for the dramatic arts, and at The Banff Centre, theatre enthusiasts are never hard to find. - THE BANFF CENTRE BLOG

By Tony Montague, April 22, 2010

It’s a way of turning old swords into futuristic plowshares. Vancouver’s ScrapArtsMusic takes discarded industrial and military materials and recycles them into invented instruments of great subtlety and power.

Gregory Kozak, the ensemble’s composer and chief metalworker, is impressed by the high quality of the stuff he gets to cut, weld, and bend to his designs—like the steel submarine ballast that serves as a small resonator chamber for one of his larger instruments, the multistringed Chariot of Choir, or the mini aluminum flying saucer he recovered from the set of a sci-fi movie and recast as the main resonator.

He particularly admires the strength of the empty artillery shells he’s fashioned into a fully chromatic set of large, low chimes. “They sound so beautiful,” says Kozak, striking each suspended shell casing in turn. “The military gets primo stuff, and I really like working with recontextualizing their salvage and making something musical out of it. Seems like a better use to me.”

Kozak and three ScrapArtsMusic colleagues are in a warehouse off Main Street, demonstrating some of the 145 instruments they’ll be playing at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Theatre this Thursday and Friday (April 22 and 23), in celebration of Earth Day.

The musicians form a circle around gleaming metal drums, which they call Humungas, that resemble small cement mixers and several others that look like supersized hourglasses. The instruments are mounted on aluminum frames and can be quickly inverted and moved around on casters. There are also smaller Scorpion Drums trailing long coils of black plastic tubing. If the space aliens in the barroom scene from Star Wars had a jam band, their instruments might look like these.

The four performers begin to play, pounding the drumheads, brushing against discs as they whirl around the ring in precisely choreographed moves. Afterward, the quartet creates a ghostly choir of what it dubs Whorlies—plastic bilge hoses of different lengths, whirled around at varying speeds. Then Kozak plays an instrument that consists simply of hard-plastic tubes of varying sizes, struck with mallets made from wood and used gymnastics mats.

Though the music is predominantly rhythmic, there’s also melody and harmony—a blend of jazz, new music, and world music rooted in African and Asian traditions.

“When I was 12 I discovered the music of Harry Partch, Igor Stravinsky, and John Coltrane in my public library,” says Kozak, who founded ScrapArtsMusic with codirector Justine Murdy in 1998. “Over the years I’ve studied West African drumming, jazz, composition, and Indian singing in New York, Cuban batá drumming, and [Indonesian] gamelan with Michael Tenzer at UBC. All of that percolates through.”

Over the years, ScrapArtsMusic has gained an increasing international following for its creations. In 2009 the group performed in the Netherlands, Belgium, Wales, Guatemala, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, and it’s soon off to Alaska, Australia, Korea, Germany, and Portugal. But they were so busy travelling, there were no hometown performances for six years. Then the company got the call to be part of the closing ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

“We already had a whole tour of New England booked,” says Kozak. “But the Olympics made it possible for us to come back, and we moved heaven and earth to make it happen.”¦We had to postpone a number of dates, but they were a great bunch to work for. I think we’re the first invented-instrument ensemble to play at an Olympic event. It was an incredible party.”

With typical ingenuity, ScrapArtsMusic long ago solved much of the weighty problem of transporting its large instruments across such distances. “Justine’s background is in architectural design,” Kozak says. “Before I could make anything, her concern was always ”˜How can we make this more tourable? Can you cut or fold it in some way so it fits inside of itself?’ When our instruments come out of the boxes, it looks like a pile of junk. We slowly assemble it all over four to eight hours, do our show, then break it down, and nest it all together like babushka dolls.

“We transport 4,000 pounds of equipment in 10 cases that don’t take up a lot of space,” Kozak continues. “It requires a lot of labour, so everybody develops these skills. That’s the nuts and bolts of travelling. It takes a new member about a year to learn what they have to do, plus all the choreography and music. It’s pretty rigorous.”

Kozak, who spends half the year crisscrossing the globe with ScrapArtsMusic, has plans to construct an entire invented-instrument orchestra, and to bring in much more complex choreography. “I’ve got the rest of the string section to build, and some brass instruments. I’ve trained probably a dozen people to make up a much bigger band. It’s going to be a crazy project. Plus, I really want to collaborate with some of the local dance companies. I’m interested in creatin - GEORGIA STRAIGHT

We have almost all heard the phrase “one man’s trash is another one’s treasure”. In the case of ScrapArtsMusic, one city’s industrial scraps, trash and throw away items have yielded a treasure trove of inventive, innovative and, yes, even beautiful, hand-crafted and to-be-treasured musical instruments. It just takes some ability as a welder, an eye for useable material and a wild imagination to envision just what a junk piece of aluminum scrap, an artillery shell or a piece of PVC pipe can become!

It has taken ScrapArtsMusic founder and percussion virtuoso Gregory Kozak and designer Justine Murdy – the heart and soul of the group- all the way to a performance at the closing ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, an opportunity that helped launch an amazing career expansion.

“It certainly raised our profile!” Greg and Justine commented. “It raised our confidence level, too. We got a lot more internet inquiries. People from all walks (of life) still talk to us about it. It was an incredible experience to see from behind-the-scenes…from costumes, to rehearsals, to pre-recording music, to staging on such a MASSIVE level with performers all being coordinated for a global telecast.

“Another highlight to the whole experience was that Canada had won the gold medal in men's hockey just hours before the Closing Ceremonies began, so there was an especial magic in the air that all Vancouverites -- and international visitors too -- were feeling high from. The weather had been so perfect... people were happy and high-5-ing complete strangers. It was such an unbelievable honor to be a part of something SO big. And we were the last group officially recognized during the Closing Ceremonies, so we felt pretty special to be part of that climax... the closing seconds of the biggest party Canada has hosted -- possibly ever!! Whoa! Sends shivers just remembering how cool it was!!!!!”

The duo established ScrapArtsMusic in July 1998. Greg Kozak is joined in performance by percussion artists Spencer Cole, Christa Mercey, Greg Samek, Malcolm Shoolbraid and Simon Thomsen. Their intricately choreographed routines with over one hundred forty-five instruments made from recycled materials makes them one of the “greenest” groups of performers out there, and one of the most electrifying to watch.

Kozak took a welding course to acquire the needed skills to make their unusual instruments. The instruments create visual art on the stage with their unique shapes and arrays. The performance is very physical and precision-driven, a percussion and movement mania that is both a visual and a sonic treat! They made scrap into art and art into music – thus the name!

Their music is a groove-based fusion of world music rhythmic traditions and twenty-first century pop demonstrating that there are potential musical instruments in many things heretofore unimagined. Some of the instruments include: Annoy-O-Phone, B-52 Drum, Humunga Drum, Junk-On-A-Stick, Sigh-Cordian, Ziggurat Drum and Whirlies, just to name a few.
Now, as they have become world travelers people will bring them scrap and challenge them to create an instrument.

“I’ve had springs from pilates machines, an F4 fuel baffle, a mini-submarine ballast tank casing, a giant cast metal marine propeller and so many other cool forms brought to me from people who "get" my sensibility,” Kozak relates. “ I love taking unexpected materials and re-contextualizing them by making cool-sounding instruments from them. They aren't so much a challenge as they are an inspiration!”

Greg began as a street performer busking around Vancouver and was “discovered” and invited to perform at an NBA half-time show. That led to performing at a high-profile music awards show, and soon the performance began to evolve as Greg worked to develop a precise choreography for the group. They now perform at large-scale professional sporting events, award shows, at performing arts centers, with orchestras and dance companies….the possibilities are endless and challenging.

We asked, “What will young people and families learn or gain from attending a performance?

“Our scrap materials are actually a manifestation of our ideas... so, before you throw away an idea or a scrap or whatever, we hope kids and families might give a second thought to how they might be able to re-use these in an even greater way than simple landfill,” Justine and Greg responded.

“Humanity could benefit from this big re-think! Hopefully we inspire people with a ‘Can Do’ attitude. For example, music making is not limited to patented instruments that can be bought at a store - why not design your own? And not all acceptable ways of performing have been figured out. Push the envelope. You might discover something amazing! Similarly, what one must do to live a good productive life has not all been charted out. You "can" create your own way! Our athletic choreography is a manifestation of our beli - CONVOCATIONS BLOGSPOT

In spite of its name this Canadian-based ensemble emphasises Art and Music. This is one fantastic visual and aural display of percussive precision full of energetic gymnastics and vibrant vitality.

Under artistic director and co-founder Gregory Kozak, they have “developed the sonic and visual potential of unexpected materials”.

What at first sight appears to be a jet engine is revealed to be at least four drums.

A marimba, various metalophones, the magical sounds of large aluminium springs, glass suckers and thunder sheets, PVC pipes and nail violin are but a few of the 25 or more different effects. What is done with what they have is both ear and eye boggling. The impact of the group is the kaleidoscope of sounds and rhythms they produce.

This is no show for those of a nervous disposition; in fact some of the really loud moments almost need a health warning. But putting such thoughts to one side here we have a programme of original music expertly played and choreographed into a remarkable show.
- THE BELFAST TELEGRAPH

IOWA CITY — Hancher Auditorium launched its post-flood season with a bang. And a clang. And a whole lotta whumps.

ScrapArtsMusic, a five-member percussion ensemble from Vancouver, captivated a crowd of several thousand gathered for a free concert Sunday afternoon on the University of Iowa Pentacrest. The weather was beautiful for the only outdoor performance on Hancher's relocated season.

Children climbed the trees for better views, while the less-daring set up chairs and blankets on the lawn in front of Old Capitol's gleaming dome.

How appropriate to have a green concert on the green grass.

Calling the troupe an "invented instrument orchestra," co-creator Greg Kozak said the performers made all the percussion pieces out of free scraps they found around their home base in British Columbia, from shipyards to deconstructed buildings.

The pieces may be recycled, but the music isn't.

Everything sounds fresh and new, played by performers who can't stand still. When they aren't kneeling on stage to bang on the floor, they're leaping from drum to drum in careful choreography that looks like spontaneous combustions.

The instruments are as highly polished as the performance, too. They don't look like rough items gleaned from a junkyard. They look more like Willy Wonka went to work with coils and tubing, making steel drums in funky geometric shapes and giant marimbas from 2-by-4s and -6s.

While some songs were as bombastic as you would expect, the troupe also knows how to pull the sound so far back as to be nearly imperceptible. Early in the 75-minute show, the players traded their big silver drums for hand-held tone blocks, each embarking on a different rhythm before moving toward unison, adding footstomps then spiraling down to a barely audible whisper before the final burst of energy.

"Phonk" is one of the more visually intriguing works, creating sight and sound from discarded plumbing pieces. Two players began by tossing coils in the air while another pounded out a thunderous beat on the large barrel drums in the background. The other two then strolled onstage with huge circles of black tubing on their arms to add to the rhythmic circus.

A couple of numbers later, all the players knelt onstage to combine pings, wooden thwacks on the floor and clocklike chimes on old artillery shells.

Those metallic melodies melted into deep, rumbling drumming on the marimbas, giving "Synthesoid Plasmatron" a sound as intriguing as its name.

Getting the audience into the action, Kozak invited "a couple dozen" volunteers to come onstage, grab some drumsticks and take their cues from the pros. They were divided into three groups, each one mimicking a different rhythm presented. After each group took its turn, they combined their beats into one fascinating rhythm.

Which pretty much sums up the mission of the music.

By Diana Nollen

- THE GAZETTE (Iowa City, IA)

ScrapArtsMusic is a unique performance group that utilizes found objects to create amazing percussion instruments that are also works of art. Gregory Kozak, the inventor of this musical collective (along with co-creator Justine Murdy), who hails from Vancouver, British Columbia, brought the troupe to the Edison Theatre on the campus of Washington University for two shows that kick off their upcoming world tour, which will also find them playing at the Olympics this year. I attended an 11am performance that was part of the university's Ovations! For Young People Series with my wife and young son, and despite my little boy being a little under the weather, we all thoroughly enjoyed the show.

There wasn't a program for this show, but I believe a piece called "Conundrum" kicked off the festivities featuring Kozak on a peculiar looking drum kit of his own design. The shiny polished steel of his 'ziggurat' toms have a futuristic look to them, but the music is pure primal sound; part industrial and part tribal, and always engaging. Another number known as "Phonk" featured twin brothers Chao Gao and Yue Gao (percussionist Gregory Samek and Spencer Cole round out the rest of the band) striking oversized metal coils to produce a shimmering clang that would reverberate or not depending on whether they grasped the instrument or tossed it into the air.

Humor plays a part in this show as well, and "Annoyophonia" featured the musicians on balloons attached to tubing with bagpipe reeds at the end (the "annoyophone"). While not especially tuneful, this number was greatly amusing, and my little boy laughed heartily at the funny noises they produced. "Ribs" played out on a variety of interesting plates and curved stainless steel bars that the players struck with mallets. This piece was very close in style to Indonesian gamelan music with melodies arising out of the different pitches and tonal qualities of the instruments. Another number utilized lengths of tubing to produce various notes, and in effect, was a literal representation of a 'pipe organ'.

Kozak took time out to periodically explain the group's methodology, contributing a nice educational thread to this performance, which is a slightly truncated version of their full show. At one point he also sent the group out to recruit youngsters to take part in a group piece that featured a kind of controlled chaos as they pounded on "hourglass" drums and the "plankophone".

ScrapArtsMusic is fascinating stuff, conjuring up comparisons to Stomp, Blue Man Group and the legendary work of Harry Partch, while creating something altogether different. If this wonderful troupe comes to your town make sure you take the time to check them out, you won't be disappointed. - BROADWAYWORLD.COM

SWANSEA -- If music is the international language, this show spoke volumes.

I went along to this one fully expecting one of those "Stomp"-style productions in which a bunch of blokes jump up and down for a couple of hours bashing dustbin lids with hammers. I could not have been more wrong.

This was glorious stuff, by far one of the best shows to have graced the stage of the Grand for a while.

Canadian-based ScrapArtsMusic is a company which creates music from recycled materials, ranging from artillery shells and planks of wood right through to rubber tubes and balloons. The result? Pure magic.

The sheer physical energy of the company is extraordinary, and the power with which they go through their paces is enough to leave one feeling utterly exhausted - but there is enough humour, wit and genuine subtlety to satisfy the most jaded musical palette.

The visual aspect, too, is brilliant: the musical instruments seen here - created by company co-founder Gregory Kozak - are almost organic and have an alien look about them, while the lighting design contributes greatly to the dynamism of the production.

This one played for one night only, but if the reaction of the crowd was anything to go by one hopes that this will be the first of many visits to Swansea by this accomplished and hugely engaging company.

-- Graham Williams
Tuesday, February 5, 2008



- EVENING POST (Wales, UK)

Dazzling the audience with instruments made from recycled materials with names such as Whorlies, Humunga drums and Sigh-chordions, ScrapArtsMusics’ performance on Sunday was something to behold.
Before the show even started, Laura Clavio, assistant director of Purdue Convocations, tried to get people involved through shake egg stations where children decorated eggs they would later use in the show.
“Before our family shows we like to do a little pre-show to get people involved,” Clavio said. Some sponsors had educational stands for the children to learn about various metals and recycling done by the companies.

The show began with the five-member troupe whirling Whorlies, an instrument composed of a hose and top piece that produces a high pitched sound depending on length and speed. The show moved at a comfortable pace from set to set. The crew rolled out various instruments and set them up in beautiful configurations done with fluidly choreographed maneuvers.

The various compositions written and performed using instruments created by Gregory Kozak, co-founder and instrument designer of ScrapArtsMusic, were performed using an inspiring array of percussion, wind and string instruments all created from salvaged materials.
“We’re trying to create an orchestra,” Kozak said when talking about the couple hundred different instruments that are used in their performances.

“I’ve been playing with recycled stuff my whole life,” Kozak said.
He has a passion to use things thrown away in scrap yards, auto-repair shops, marine salvages and even parts given to him by some helpful fans. Justine Murdy, co-founder and manager of ScrapArtsMusic, mentioned an interesting torpedo tube that one fan had given them.
“We get exceptionally strange stuff from people,” Murdy said.
“The stuff from the military is the best,” Kozak said referring to instruments such as the Artillery Shell Chimes. - THE EXPONENT

Before Evelyn Glennie emerged for a brilliantly modulated bongo solo, Scrap Arts Music from Canada gave a display of their craft.

Using an anything-goes approach as sound-source, this quintet have the total package: near-faultless command of their instruments, a unanimity of ensemble that even from a distance impresses as extraordinary, and athletic choreography that obviously requires just as much conditioning as any physically draining sport. As later with Glennie, students were incorporated into the action, the whole corps bringing off an exciting sonic mix of rhythmic interplay and juxtaposed sounds from the most finely polished scrap metal I ever seen. It’s a pity the musicians have complete their appearances here. Even for the percussively jaded, this group is a knock-out.
- THE AGE (Melbourne, Australia)

The most fascinating aspect of Sunday's Chamber Orchestra concert was the presence of the guest artists, Scrap Arts Music. You may already be wondering, "Who and what are Scrap Arts Music?" Well, they're pretty much precisely what their name implies. The ensemble of five young musicians, four men and one woman under the directorship of Gregory Kozak, create their own percussion instruments out of what most of us would describe as scrap metal and then allow the characteristics of those instruments to inspire the creation of their music. The Chamber Orchestra's assistant conductor, Jeri Lynne Johnson, heard the group in performance at the Painted Bride Arts Center and commissioned Kozak to compose a work for both his ensemble and hers. The result was Composition for Sigh-Chordians and Strings, which received its world premiere on Sunday at the start of the program's second half under Johnson's baton as well as Kozak's energetic leadership of his players. The remainder of the concert featured Kozak's Synthesoid Plasmatron of 1999, Ribs of 2001 and Agreement, also from 1999.

Composition for Sigh-Chordians and Strings is a beautifully evocative that pairs the eerie sounds of the wind with the focused tones of string instruments. It proffers an arching structure that is delineated through the rising and falling of intensities and speeds, and it travels through time with an hypnotic power over the listener.

Synthesoid Plasmatron, Ribs and Agreement are all more percussive in nature, and yet if anything all three are even more varied in timbral color and textural range than is Composition for Sigh-Chordians and Strings. Kozak's sense of unfolding form is flawless in all three of these works and his ear for the imaginative layering of propulsive rhythms is impeccable.

I would be doing the five members of the group a grave disservice if I didn't mention and praise here the spectacular choreography of their playing of their many instruments. Just watching them dash around the Perelman's stage in immaculate ensemble and with explosive intensity was breathtaking. They made a thrilling contribution to the afternoon's music-making -- and Jeri Lynne Johnson deserves tremendous credit for having had the openness of mind to have encountered Scrap Arts Music in the first place and for having the courage in the second to commission a score from Kozak. Classical music exists within but it can only thrive when those traditions are invigorated with fresh input.
- CHESTNUT HILL REVIEW, Philadelphia PA

LAWRENCE -- Before hauling your junk to the driveway for curbside pickup, you might take another look and cock an ear to your discards' latent musical potential.

That is precisely what Scrap Arts Music director Gregory Kozak did several years ago in his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.

Seeking a distinctive sound beyond the standardized instrumentation of such conventionalized genres as jazz and rock, Kozak salvaged a medley of plastic pipes, hoses, coils, plumbing fixtures, two-by-fours, pop cans, steel bowls and aluminum drums, transforming them into a futuristic array of eye- and ear-grabbing sound generators.

The result of Kozak's quest is the aptly named Scrap Arts Music, a lively percussion quintet which proved Tuesday night at Lawrence's Lied Center that recycling can pay rich musical dividends.

In addition to devising the group's sonically and visually arresting instruments, Kozak serves as Scrap Arts Music's composer, choreographer and artistic director. However, unless one perused the credits in the program, one would have been hard-pressed to name the leader on the basis of the group's performance.

Indeed, each of the group's members -- Scott Bishop, Malcolm Shoolbraid, Sarka Kocicka, Simon Thomsen and Kozak -- had equal and ample time to strut his or her percussive stuff. Still, the group's principal effect was the result of its elaborate and precisely choreographed rhythms and movements.

In "Engine of the Future," for instance, the fivesome reached a thunderous climax abetted by close-quarter maneuvers worthy of the Rockettes and a cascade of sounds produced by such ingeniously named thump-machines as "annoy-o-phones," "hour glass drums," "gymnastic mat paddles" and a "junk-on-a-stick."

In the course of wending its way through an often astonishing program of Kozak originals graced with such titles as "Synthesoid Plasmatron," "Annoyophonia" and "Conundrum," the group demonstrated more than mere virtuosity.

Indeed, in soundscapes ranging from the explosive "Artillery Peace" (featuring instruments fashioned from huge artillery shells) to the delicately deployed tones of "Scrapology," the group essayed an impressive musicality in which melody and harmony and tonal color had as great an impact as percussion.

Scrap Art Music also brought a funny bone, which resonated with appropriate good and goofy cheer in Satie-esque miniatures, such as "Whorlies." Musical good humor also abounded in the more elaborate "Assembly Required," in which various lengths of exhaust tubing were constantly reconfigured to produce various pitches and timbres, including several "impolite" sounds that the Mel Brooks of "Blazing Saddles" would have heartily endorsed.

As evidenced by the delight of a host of youngsters, placing Scrap Arts Music in the Lied's Kansas Family Series proved sanguine. For adults, the quintet's emotionally stirring music made the point that percussion can be more than mere stomps or bangs on cans.

Chuck Berg is a professor at The University of Kansas. He can be reached at cberg@ku.edu.
- TOPEKA CAPITOL REVIEW by Chuck Berg

In spite of its name this Canadian-based ensemble emphasises Art and Music. This is one fantastic visual and aural display of percussive precision full of energetic gymnastics and vibrant vitality.

Under artistic director and co-founder Gregory Kozak, they have “developed the sonic and visual potential of unexpected materials”.

What at first sight appears to be a jet engine is revealed to be at least four drums.

A marimba, various metalophones, the magical sounds of large aluminium springs, glass suckers and thunder sheets, PVC pipes and nail violin are but a few of the 25 or more different effects. What is done with what they have is both ear and eye boggling. The impact of the group is the kaleidoscope of sounds and rhythms they produce.

This is no show for those of a nervous disposition; in fact some of the really loud moments almost need a health warning. But putting such thoughts to one side here we have a programme of original music expertly played and choreographed into a remarkable show.

-- Leonard Pugh

- THE BELFAST TELEGRAPH (Northern Ireland)

Scrap Arts es un conjunto musical extraordinario y exultante. Su música significa geografía e historia. Con ellos comprobamos la antigüedad de lo moderno, ya que todos sus instrumentos de percusión nos recordaron culturas tan antiguas como la china, japonesa, senegalesa, tibetana o balinés.

No hubo instrumentos relacionados con las cuerdas, solamente percusiones, y lo maravilloso es que ellos convierten todo el espacio en asunto percusivo. Esto último incluye el cuerpo humano, por supuesto.

Utilizan una mezcla rítmica sabiamente equilibrada, la combinación justa entre lo suave y lo fuerte, además de las formas musicales contrapuntísticas que incluyen manejo del espacio para prolongar las resonancias metálicas. Nos mostraron una cantidad de instrumentos que parecerían sacados de la modernidad de Mad Max. Nada que ver. Es obvio que ellos deliberadamente miraron hacía atrás y amalgamaron su temporalidad con el poder del pasado. No pude dejar de pensar que la música maya podría haber sonado a lo que ellos tocaban, en especial cuando tocaban marimbitas africanas o producían sonidos tubulares.

Unido a lo metálico, al parche de cuerdas, las baquetas o los palitos, trabajaban en una especie de coreografía sabrosa y monótona que remataban en ciertos compases de sus interpretaciones. De ese efecto surgía una forma ritual de la música. Pero sus habilidades y calidad musical las manifestaron de diferentes maneras, en algunas partes parecían malabaristas, prestidigitadores y cambiaban secuencialmente de instrumentos. La voz, el aire corporal no escapó a esas habilidades tan maravillosas y supieron darles un tono de comicidad. El resultado fue una variedad gratificante.

Por ello el público se les entregó sin menoscabo. Cada pieza fue sonoramente aplaudida por un teatro que se asfixiaba de lleno.

¿Tanta gente los conocía en Mérida, o ese público fue guiado por un olfato dispuesto para detectar calidades extraordinarias? No lo sé. Lo cierto es que el teatro estaba lleno a toda su capacidad. Mucha gente se quedó afuera, pero la de adentro silbó, tronó palmas, se puso de pie y aulló. En realidad Scrap Arts Music lo merecía. El público yucateco se manifestó con esa espontaneidad que da altura a la sensibilidad, al sentido común, al placer por si mismo, sin análisis, sin explicaciones o terceras interpretaciones.

Cerraban el círculo de esta sapiencia teatral, la iluminación, el vestuario y el trazo danzable. Casi todo realizado por Gregory Kozak y Justine Murdy, directores de la puesta en escena llamada Phonk.

Todas las palabras iniciadas con el prefijo ex podrían aplicarse a este grupo que pienso será de lo mejor que se hubiera presentado en este Tercer Festival de las Artes a propósito de las celebraciones de la fundación de Mérida.

Aunque Scrap en inglés puede significar chatarra (dice el programa de mano que ellos hicieron sus instrumentos con chatarra), el producto dirigido a la audiencia está muy distante de eso. La sonoridad es magistral. Y tribal, eso sí. Muy moderna de concepto pero muy antigua de formas y sonoridades. Africa, Tibet, China y Japón tuvieron evidente presencia en el teatro Mérida la noche del miércoles 24 de enero de 2007, a través de un grupo de canadienses llamados Scrap Arts Music.

-- Victor Salas
viernes, 26 de enero de 2007

Translation:

Scrap Arts Music is an extraordinary and jubilant musical ensemble. Their music is geography and history together, and it confirms how “ancient” “modern” is after all. Their percussion instruments recall ancient cultures from China, Japan, Senegal, Tibet and Bali.

There were no chordal instruments, only percussion -- and the best part was that they turned the entire space into a percussion-worthy instrument which included, of course, their own human bodies.

They use a wisely balanced rhythmic mix, perfectly blending soft with hard, as well as counterpointed musical forms that work with the physical space to prolong metallic resonances. They showed us a great number of instruments that looked like they had been taken straight out of Mad Max. Just kidding! Actually it was so much more than that. It is obvious that they have deliberately taken inspiration from the past to add intensity to the temporality of their music. I couldn’t help thinking that Mayan music could have sounded like what they were playing, especially when they played the African marimbas or produced tubular sounds.

Together with the metallic sounds, friction drum, drumsticks or sticks, they worked in a lively and unisonous choreography that enhanced certain beats of the performance. This all combined to create a ritualistic musical ambiance. Scrap Arts Music showed us their talents and the quality of their music in diverse ways; sometimes, they were jugglers or illusionists sequentially changing instruments. The addition of vocals enhanced all these incredible talents and gave the music overall a more humorous tone. The result was a diverse and truly gra - POR ESTOS (Mérida, México)

Imagine a preschool run amok, with toddlers banging on every conceivable blunt object, and you get an idea of the energy expended during a ScrapArtsMusic concert.

A Vancouver-based percussion quintet, ScrapArtsMusic was at the Holland Performing Arts Center Friday, engaging in its strange yet strikingly beautiful art form. The musicians perform on instruments fashioned from junk. These reconstructed pipes, drums and cymbals –– made from bilge hoses, barrels, coils, rods, cans, hollow tubes and even old artillery shells –– created a surprising and sparkling tintinnabulation of sound when played by the ScrapsArts virtuosos.

Gregory Kozak, founder of ScrapArtsMusic, said he found inspiration for his group in the music of Harry Partch, the 20th-century avant-garde composer who made his own instruments. The idiosyncratic timbres in Kozak’s works were very Partch-like.

But Kozak’s music also called to mind the music of composer Steve Reich, whose luminous, pulsating minimalist compositions pile one complex polyrhythm on another.

ScrapArtsMusic’s compositions boast titles that are both evocative and descriptive. Friday’s concert opened with the aptly named "Whorlies." Four percussionists whirled phosphorescent bilge hoses of differing lengths, which produced different pitches. The resulting sound was reminiscent of a haunting four-voice choir.

The next piece, "Conundrum," opened with Kozak playing his homemade drum kit while his companions banged on a bevy of barrels –– recycled and renamed as hourglass drums, humunga drums and B-52 drums. Kozak set the basic pattern while the rest of the ensemble danced and banged to an orgy of rhythm.

In "Ribs," the musicians performed on a homemade xylophone, made from steel bars of varying lengths, accompanied by a sigh-chordion, a sort of hand-held accordion that sounded like a harmonica. The makeshift xylophone looked like a ribcage. At times, it sounded like a glorious carillon.

Vibration played a huge role in the concert. In one piece, "Phonk," players struck aluminum coils with mallets and then tossed them into the air. The coils hummed with ringing resonance when thrown. In another work, "Delta," Kozak struck an old discarded plate and then shook it. The shaking created a beautifully shimmering vibrato.

Some of ScrapArtsMusic’s most interesting experiments were revealed in the works "Some Assembly Required" and "Artillery Peace." In the former, huge, hollow tubes were played with paddles, creating a grooving, jazzy bass sound. In the later, empty artillery shells proved to be amazingly versatile percussion instruments, sounding like a drum, cymbal or bell depending on how they were hit.

The hoot of the evening was "Annoyophonia," played on a bagpipe reed attached to balloons. It was the musical equivalent of a whoopie cushion. "Synthesoid Plasmatron," a rippling masterpiece played on a giant marimba, was the evening’s crowning glory.

By John Pitcher - WORLD-HERALD