In a world where alternative music is quickly becoming mainstream, it's nice to know that there are still groups that remain truly nontraditional. Uakti (pronounced wah-ke-chee) is most definitely one of those groups.
The group is named after a creature of Amazonian myth which, when it ran through the forest, produced magical noises from the wind by blowing across holes in its body. Similarly, Uakti produces its own one-of-a-kind instruments and sounds.
Primarily percussionary in nature, the instruments are made by group manager Marco Antonio Guimares. Guimares produces the fantastic, complex devices from whatever materials strike his fancy. The band works primarily with pieces made of glass, bamboo, wood and especially PVC pipe.
"The PVC pipe is very easy to find everywhere, and there is a very special fixed size, so you can find any store and replace what you need," the group's main flute player Artur Andres said. "In traveling you always have problems with materials like bamboo and wood."
While alternative materials have become something of a trademark for the band, the original reasons for the strange instruments were very practical. In the early 1980s when Uakti first began, musical instruments were very expensive and difficult to find in the group's home country of Brazil.
With normal instruments costing 300 to 400 percent of what they would in the United States, the less-than-wealthy artists were forced to find an alternate method for producing their music. Thus, they made their first instruments out of glass and wood, initially constructing a glass marimba and going on from there.
Currently, Uakti possesses over 100 unique, homemade instruments but only use 40 on their tours for various reasons such as space concerns. While they may only show the audience less than half of the instruments available to them, those instruments are spectacular.
Some of the more bizarre pieces they will be performing with are the Tower, a man-sized pipe spun by one musician while a second plays 11 strings with a cello bow, and the Trilobyte, a contraption consisting of 10 tuned drums in an arrangement similar to an Octoban.
The range and texture of the sounds produced by these instruments are vast. The Tower reportedly makes an extremely eerie moaning sound. Even traditional instruments like flutes get a twist by being made out of the band's favorite material PVC.
The music of Uakti has been described as a kind of New Age music if it were performed by the Cantina Band from "Star Wars." Certainly, the group mixes New Age and minimalist themes with more traditional Brazilian sounds.
The Brazilian influence to their music is interesting because it comes not from a single, specific type. Rather, Uakti utilizes both the faster, popular Samba beats as well as the older musical styles of the Amazon natives.
Uakti has produced three albums, the second of which premiered in the top ten of the Billboard World Music chart. Their most recent album, "Trilobyte," came out in 1994 and received a great deal of critical acclaim. They are currently working on their next album which they hope to finish after this tour.
So, if you're looking for something truly unique to do this Friday, let me suggest the Uakti performance. From all reports it's something you will never forget.
