Eli Gras (a amazing multidisciplinary artist, performer, inventor,entertainer, musician…)

Eli Gras is a multidisciplinary artist active in lots of creative fields, but mostly known for her excellent career in experimental underground music since the early eighties. Her experimentations have covered all kinds of musical paths, from pure experimentalism to electropop, minimalism, funk, and so much more. What is striking to me from this artist is that she invents her own instruments, which of course brings a completely new and unique sound perspective to the ears and minds.

There are lots of videos of her live performances playing her inventions, which of course is an exciting thing to see and hear on the digital highway; but its even better and more exciting when you can hear and see her performing live in front of you. In a couple of days (upcoming Saturday 14th November) she will be doing her magical thing on the experimental cozy toxic grounds of Gifgrond.
If you are in The Netherlands, or close, or willing to travel; you really should try to be there..

But in case you need some little more fire to get yourself convinced to get -by any means- to see Eli Gras live in action, I will have no choice to embed some very interesting video clips of her and her inventions in action. You know she is probably the only person around who can actually turn a old football table game, into an exciting music instrument!

Her introduction to her invented ‘Circular String Sequencer’ is one thing that will make many sound & string lovers smile. The instrument is showcased with enough visuals and sounds to get that excitement going in the following video:

One of these magical fragments is this clipped of her ‘Peeled Piano concert’. Her she gives a performance of recycled materials and gives them a brand new purpose as musical instruments. You can see in the video the random looking stuff, tied together twisting, rattling and rambling. If you just look at the images it will be hard to imagine that the audio outcome is of such a dreamy and psychedelic kind. Piano strings are being unorthodox played by completely new ways, knobs are turned and strange structures are triggered; but all the recycled new found sound equipment apart; its the music itself that prevails in delivering the fine magic.

Another great example of invention is this ‘Contrabaj de Cesto’, which you can see and hear thanks to the performing hands of Truna & Eli Gras herself:

It might be of your interest to see Eli Gras inventing something on the spot,
so here is a video of her inventing a remote control for her ‘Toys Theater’ which has a result you really shouldn’t miss out on:

To end this post, I would like to invite you to watch and hear Eli Gras + Motor Combo in this fragment of a very fun sounding concert. Maybe there is a little less machinery going on (she is here armed with a guitar, flute and toys) , but the performance is just so much fun to hear and look at. It’s a true music performance with a fun attitude and a smile:

For more information, videos and music, please do not hesitate to visit her official website:
http://www.eligras.com/
<KN>