Musical instruments composed of sewer pipes, metal trays, bikes, fixtures and furniture? That is what Junkestra is all about, taking trash from the local dump and creating beautiful music. Junkestra was composed in 2007 in collaboration with San Francisco waste management company Recology.
Nathaniel Stookeys “Junkestra”, composed during his 2007 artist residency at Recology San Francisco. The work in three movements is performed with percussion instruments created from materials Stookey scavenged from the dump. The work was first presented in a warehouse at the Recology San Francisco facility in 2007, and following its overwhelming success, was later performed to capacity crowds at the Herbst Theater. It has been presented many times since, most notably to mark the opening of the new California Academy of Sciences building in Golden Gate Park.
During his four month residency at Recology, Stookey assembled what he called a sonorous collection of pipes, pans, mixing bowls, bottles, serving trays, deck railings, dresser drawers, oil drums, bike wheels, saws, garbage cans, bathroom fixtures, bird-cages and shopping carts. The result, he said, is a richer palette of timbre and pitch than anything I could have foreseen or designed. Junkestra will be released by Innova Records in late April, 2010. Innova will also issue a dance mix version of Junkestra.