"There is a folk legend of a little boy who finds in the forest a bird with a beautiful song and brings it home. He asks his father to bring food for the bird. The father doesn't want to feed a mere bird, so he kills it. And the legend says the man killed the bird, and with the bird he killed the song, and with the song, he killed himself. He dropped dead, completely dead, and was dead forever." ~Joseph Campbell
Trepanning Trio is an instrumental, avant-chamber ensemble which performs and records using only classical, traditional and handmade instruments (i.e., viola da gamba, kalimba, guzheng, pan lids screwed onto sticks and played with violin bows, etc).
Since its unofficial formation in 1998, this Northeast Ohio-based ensemble has assembled an unlikely rogues' gallery of more than two dozen musicians, composers, artists, writers and ethnomusicologists. Contrary to its name, Trepanning Trio typically performs with a rotating lineup of nine to twelve musicians. Despite their diverse backgrounds, they bring hundreds of years of experience to bear on a repertoire forged by a shared passion for sound, texture, rhythm, melody and experimentation.
The band's name derives from the surgical procedure in which a hole is drilled into the human skull. Cave paintings suggest that people once trepanned the skulls of the living in order to let evil spirits escape, thereby curing seizures, migraines, and mental disorders.
"I am a Crooked Arrow" is a collection of string compositions and sweet little songs inspired by a disparate amalgam of film, literature and music.
"The Man Killed the Bird..." is an album of recent recordings of tones, textures and themes fueled by creative improvisation and unlikely collaborations.
