Alastair Galbraith (born 1965) is a New Zealand musician and sound artist from Dunedin.
Contents
Career
Galbraith's first band was The Rip, which he formed with Robbie Muir, and Mathew Ransome and later Jeff Harford (of Bored Games). They released two EPs on the Flying Nun label. Later he formed Plagal Grind, with Robbie Muir, Jono Lonie, David Mitchell (of Goblin Mix and The 3Ds) and Peter Jefferies (of This Kind Of Punishment and Nocturnal Projections).
Galbraith's solo career has included numerous early cassettes and 7"s on Bruce Russell's (The Dead C) Xpressway label, as well as albums on labels such as Siltbreeze, Emperor Jones, Time Lag, Feel Good All Over and Table of the Elements. He has also recorded ten albums with Bruce Russell under the name A Handful of Dust. During the 1990s, Galbraith frequently collaborated with the Mountain Goats, including co-releasing the 1995 joint EP Orange Raja, Blood Royal (with the Mountain Goats) and contributing violin and string arrangements to the Mountain Goats 1997 album Full Force Galesburg. In 1999, he began a collaboration with Matt De Gennaro when the two toured New Zealand Public Art Galleries converting them into giant soundboxes by stroking tensioned wires fixed to the buildings' structural supports.
In 2002, he designed and built a glass-tube fire organ, during an arts residency at the Sarjeant Gallery's Tylee Cottage Residency in Whanganui. His subsequent album Orb includes the track 'Tylee Cottage' and a photograph of the fire organ in Whanganui's Durie Hill Elevator tunnel.
In 2006, he released Waves and Particles a collaboration with Maxine Funke (The Snares) and Mike Dooley (The Enemy, Toy Love, Snapper) as The Hundred Dollar Band. There was also the release of Long Wires in Dark Museums, Vol. 2 and the reissue of his early albums Morse/Gaudylight and Talisman by U.S. label Table of the Elements.
Later that year he was awarded an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award and released Belsayer Time, a collaboration with Richard Youngs and Alex Neilson.
In 2007, Galbraith built a treadle-powered glass harmonium and released orb a solo album on his own Nextbestway label.
Discography
The Rip:
1984 – A Timeless Peace EP (NZ Flying Nun Records)
1987 – Stormed Port EP (NZ Flying Nun Records)
Plagal Grind:
1990 – Plagal Grind EP (NZ Xpressway)
Solo:
Long Playing & Cassette
1987 – Hurry on Down cassette (Xpressway)
1992 – Morse (Siltbreeze)
1995 – Talisman (NZ, Next Best Way)
1998 – Mirrorwork (Emperor Jones)
2000 – Cry (Emperor Jones)
2007 – Orb (Next Best Way)
2010 – Mass (Siltbreeze) (with Amiel Balester, Michael Kohler and David Kilgour)
Singles & EPs
1989 – Timebomb – 7" with Graeme Jefferies – Xpressway – X/WAY 10
1991 – Gaudylight – EP 7" – Siltbreeze – SB07
1994 – Cluster – EP 7" – Ger. Raffmond – RAFF 006-7
1994 – Intro Version – EP 7" – Roof Bolt – RB001
1995 – Orange Raja, Blood Royal (with the Mountain Goats) – 7" – Walt Records – Walt 005
