Orchestra of Spheres 10/29/14 Bar

Space-quartet from New Zealand. While this trippy combo was hardly an "orchestra", their appearance and music was otherworldly. The instruments looked homemade, so I will have to describe. The ring leader wore a Sun Ra type outfit with fez, shades, and Muslim robe. He switched between a 3-stringed banjo and a six key "keyboard". The banjo gave a full synthesized sound and seemed like it had to have more than three strings. The keyboard looked like a NZ version of the game Simon. A young woman played a traditional keyboard, sang, and played multiple percussion items that ranged from shakers to whistles, she wore a face obscuring mask. Also masked, was a female keyboard bassist. This keyboard looked like it was fashioned in wood shop, but it spewed a creamy bass tone when the keys were struck. Her feverish playing almost knocked the thing off of its stand. A pretty standard drummer (also disguised), rounded out the quartet. The vocals were hard to discern, and the thick NZ accent further obscured their message. No matter, this group was about sound and vision. The music ebbed and swelled and had elements African beats. Imagine four NZ twenty something's playing Touareg,Sun Ra, dervish music while spending time at Tim Leary's cabin and you're close to Orchestra of Spheres.