Atlanta odd instrument specialist Klimchak gets weird at the In-Between Series

THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND
Klimchak, Gallery at Avalon Island, April 16

Even by the standards of the usually unusual In-Between Series, this one was out there. Klimchak, the mononymous featured act, is an Atlanta composer whose doesn’t just write and perform music but specializes in odd instruments, some of which are designed and built or modified himself. From the looks of some pictures floating around online, these aren’t so much DIY folk versions of traditional instruments like cigar box guitars but rather wild and completely original creations straight out of imagination.
This Orlando debut for Klimchak was the kickoff of his first solo tour of Florida. For it, he came packing an arsenal of instruments ranging from familiar to modified to foreign, on down to normally non-musical objects like knitting needles and ping-pong balls.
There were small electronics. There were percussion instruments that were electronic (a Roland HandSonic), acoustic (a drumhead) and sometimes both (the alchemy between the drumhead and whatever it was hooked up to). Spanning metal, wood, string, wind and even non-lyrical voice, it was an incredible array of sounds, all engaged in intriguing interplay across both electronic and acoustic media.
The three-piece suite that Klimchak performed started as a drone soundscape with music that moved like orchestrated weather and ended up in an odyssey of rhythm.

It was a study in texture, movement and the kind of lightning-capturing improvisation that sometimes saw him playing things until they fell to the floor or flew out of his hands. No regular performance, he baffled passersby outside. To those of us inside, however, it was a ride.

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