ABOUT

"When I hear drum machines and synthesizers the images that come to mind are of patients in intensive care units attached by tubes to devises that regulate their heartbeats, force oxygen into their lungs, add nutrients to their blood and "manage" their pain. To me these represent the most joyless aspects of modern living, analogous to the way our habitats have evolved into sprawls of pavement constructed with the goal of making life better for our cars than for our children."
-Alex Ferris 2001

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Anarchestra is a group (around 100) of instruments (built -with two exceptions- by Alex Ferris), the people who play them (a few dozen regulars and a few hundred occasionals so far), and the socio-musical ideas that inform their playing. The instruments are predominantly steel with a few adapted parts, such as tuning machines and mouthpieces.
The instruments were built to encourage non-musicians to explore the making of sound, to allow experienced musicians to make sound unconstricted by their technical habits and preconceptions, and to provide an alternative vocabulary of musical sounds.

We have duty towards music, namely, to invent it. -Stravinsky

ARTICLES

• BIOPIC

  Je est un autre. Tant pis pour le bois qui se trouve violon. (I is someone else. Too bad for the wood that finds it’s a violin.) .... click here to continue

• RECORDINGS: COLLECTIVE IMPROVISATIONS

  
  
  The document, then, is no longer for history an inert material throug.... click here to continue

• Dedication

  
  
  Dedicated to
  

  Sherry Mariano
  Robert Parker
  Rick Ziello
  Bill Shay
  Richard O’Connor click here to continue

• RECORDINGS: studies

  
  recordings: studies
  

   

  
  

  
  click here to continue

• CAPITALISM / FASCISM / ANARCHISM

  
  ….for any musical innovation is full of danger to the whole state and ought .... click here to continue

• Gender

  
  GENDER & MUSIC
  
  I feel very ambivalent about this article.  It is poorly written and not really organized, most likely.... click here to continue

• VOX POP

  
  (This is the text of a booklet introducing Anarchestra to participants at the Hi.... click here to continue

• COLLABORATORS

  
  What gives Anarchestra life are the people who choose to participate. Without their contributions Anarchestra would be nothing more than a .... click here to continue

• Music Box

  
  For the 2006 High Mayhem Festival, Gaspard and I, with some help from Dawn, built a 12x12 shack in the parkinglot with a set of instruments .... click here to continue

• Anarchist Metaphysics

  
  Anarchist Metaphysics: Immanence & Transcendence
  
  
  click here to continue

• HISTORY

  alex ferris writes:
  
  
  Insemination
  
  In late 1999 I was worki.... click here to continue