The Alloy Orchestra is just a trio and most of what they play is junk.
They play bedpans and dentist trays and galvanized metal ducts. They play plumbing-pipe chimes and two-by-four vibes and horseshoes for triangles.
Sure, they play the synthesizer, too, and sometimes an accordion or the rare clarinet, but mostly they pound out rhythms on a seven-foot rack of found objects. What they do with their music is just as interesting as the way they make it.
The Alloy Orchestra makes its living accompanying silent films, playing live music to the antics of long-dead stars like Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Laurel and Hardy. They accompany less comic works too - like Metropolis, Nosferatu, and, most recently Sergei Eisenstein's Strike.
Their role in the cinema is a throwback to an odd bit of the early 20th century - with a late 20th century twist - but it sure puts a bang into silent film.... And a crash, and a bump, thump, clink and clank.
The Alloy Orchestra - in the second hour of The Connection with Ken Winokur, clarinet and percussion; Terry Donahue, percussion, accordion, banjo, tenor guitar; Roger C. Miller, keyboards. (Hosted by Bob Oakes)
