Alastair Galbraith

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Alastair Galbraith, photographed in Dunedin in 2011.

Alastair Galbraith is a musician from Dunedin, New Zealand.^[1]

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 and 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. 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 in Whanganui.

In 2006, he released Waves and Particles a collaboration with his partner Maxine Funke (The Snares) and Mike Dooley (The Enemy, Toy Love) 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)
• 1987 - Stormed Port EP (NZ Flying Nun)

Plagal Grind

• 1990 - Plagal Grind EP (NZ Xpressway)

Alastair Galbraith

• 1987 - Hurry on Down cassette (Xpressway)
• 1989 - Timebomb 7 (with Graeme Jefferies) (Xpressway)
• 1991 - Gaudylight EP7 (Siltbreeze)
• 1992 - Morse (Siltbreeze)
• 1993 - Seely Girn (Feel Good All Over)
• 1994 - Cluster EP7 (Ger. Raffmond)
• 1994 - Intro Version EP7 (Roof Bolt)
• 1995 - Talisman (NZ, Next Best Way)
• 1995 - Tae Keening EP7 (with Demarnia Lloyd) (Roof Bolt)
• 1996 - Morse and Gaudylight (Emperor Jones)
• 1997 - Rivulets EP7 (Camera Obscura)
• 1998 - Mirrorwork (Emperor Jones)
• 2000 - Cry (Emperor Jones)
• 2002 - Long Wires in Dark Museums, Vol. 1 EP (with Matt De Gennaro) (Emperor Jones)
• 2003 - Radiant (with Constantine Karlis) (Emperor Jones)
• 2006 - Long Wires in Dark Museums, Vol. 2 EP (with Matt De Gennaro) (Table of the Elements/Xeric)
• 2006 - Belsayer Time (with Richard Youngs and Alex Neilson) (Time-Lag)
• 2007 - Orb (Next Best Way)
• 2007 - Mass (Siltbreeze) (with Amiel Balester, Michael Kohler and David Kilgour)

A Handful of Dust

(with Bruce Russell and Peter Stapleton)

• 1993 - Concord LP (Twisted Village)
• 1994 - The Philosophick Mercury CD (Corpus Hermeticum) 1994 (reissued on CD by No Fun Productions, 2008)
• 1994 - The Eightness of Adam Qadmon TC (Corpus Hermeticum)
• 1994 - Musica Humana CD (Corpus Hermeticum)
• 1995 - From a Soundtrack to the Anabase of St.John Perse TC (Corpus Hermeticum) 1995 (reissued on LP by Bluesilver, 2000)
• 1996 - Now Gods, Stand Up For Bastards CD (Corpus Hermeticum) 1996 (reissued on CD by No Fun Productions, 2008)
• 1997 - Topology of a Phantom City TC (Corpus Hermeticum)
• 1997 - Spiritual Libertines CD (Crank Automotive)
• 1998 - Jerusalem, Street of Graves CD (Corpus Hermeticum)
• 2002 - For Patti Smith CD (FreewaySound)
• 2009 - Panegyric (Next Best Way)

The Hundred Dollar Band

(with Maxine Funke and Mike Dooley)

• 2006 - Waves and Particles (Emperor Jones)

References