Gas Tank OrTekstra
Gas Tank Orchestra laptop remix by GTO members Matthew Rosenbeck and Gregory Wildes.
Gas Tank Orchestra was founded in New Orleans in the early ‘90s by Gregory Wildes and features a wide range of instruments including strings, reeds, horns, and percussion, all constructed with automobile gas tanks scavenged from illegal street dumps in New Orleans Ninth Ward neighborhood. The gas tanks provide intriguing acoustic and histo-socio-economic resonance for an orchestra improvising with improvised instruments; and it’s nice to get some more mileage out of old junk.
After a five year hiatus, Gas Tank Orchestra recently reunited for two “rusty, muddy and semi-retired” shows in New Orleans. GTO’s last performance prior to the reunion was in July of ‘01 at the Pori International Jazz Festival in Finland, with Gregory relocating to NYC that fall. During their extended break Matthew and Gregory have been exploring the digital realm and honing their skills. Gregory has produced a sample library of the gas tank instruments for Big Fish Audio and is developing a gamepad to midi controller interface via Max/MSP.
Matthew’s visit to NYC provides opportunity for yet another reunion of sorts where he and Gregory will collaborate for a DJ set featuring material sampled from their recent shows and who knows what else.
http://www.myspace.com/gastankorchestra
