Squonk Opera - Astro-Rama (2008)

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Squonk Opera - Astro-Rama (2008)

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SQUONK OPERA is an American Crossover Prog project based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their first big show was performed in a Pittsburgh junkyard, with choreographed cranes, roaring earthmovers and screaming machine shears over 20 years ago. An ensemble of musicians, artists, designers and technicians led by artist Steve O'HEARN and composer Jackie DEMPSEY, they have taken their multimedia spectacles combining live original music with visual art across the United States and beyond, from tiny clubs and art house basements to Broadway stages and international arts festivals.

The Squonkers received their first major theatrical commission in 1995 to create "NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: THE OPERA" and since then have created many quirky multimedia shows, among them:

"BIGSMORGASBORDWUNDERWERK" (2000) - The Off-Broadway hit that jumped to Broadway, this show's soundtrack was distributed by Angel Records, at that time a subsidiary of Capitol Records, and traveled to Asia and Europe. The Scotsman called it "Masterly Mayhem" and USA Today called it "surreal, poetic."

"INFERNO" (2002) - Based on Dante's classic, set in Centralia, Pennsylvania, a coal mining town where a fire burns underground to this day, American Theatre Magazine called the show "Old as Dante, new as MTV."

"ASTRO-RAMA" (2008) - In this large-scale outdoor event, the Squonkers join their audience in a festive attempt to contact far-flung galaxies. A crashed UFO is "discovered" and the next day a 4-story radio telescope dish is erected to mount a planetary response. The musicians rise in scissor lifts and cranes, squabble with a giant supercomputer and finally transmit their message - a self-portrait as a species. Cleveland Scene described the show as "somewhere between a DEVO concert and 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind.'" A full-length DVD is available.

"MAYHEM AND MAJESTY" (2010) - The Squonkers returned to Off-Broadway in 2013 with this show that asks the question "what does music look like?" The New York Times praised its "images of strange and startling beauty" while Broadway World called it "one of the most unique shows New York has ever seen."

"GO ROADSHOW" (2012) - This "carnival on wheels" (Boston Globe) is performed on the back of a flatbed truck retrofitted with truck-horn calliope, a wall made of rotors and a spinning grand piano.

"PNEUMATICA" (2014) - SQUONK's latest production is an event about air, made of air and powered by air. Figures and tentacles grow, powered by blowers and vortex fans, and culminate in the 40-foot high Lady Pneumatica. As for the CD of the music, it is SQUONK's 9th release and 1st purely instrumental one. Sound Scene Express calls out the "killer guitar solos" and "majestic" electronic bagpipes while ProgNaut calls the music "awesome eclectic progressive rock." "PNEUMATICA" features SQUONK's current musical line-up: Jackie DEMPSEY on keyboard and accordion, Kevin KORNICKI on drums, Steve O'HEARN on electronic bagpipes and flute, David Wallace on electric guitar and Nathan WILSON on bass.

Their music has been called 'hypnotic' by The New York Times, 'gloriously eccentric' by Time Out New York and 'Debussy meets Godzilla' by the Washington Post. They have performed their large-scale original productions for over 300,000 people in over 30 of the United States and in Scotland, Belgium, Canada, Germany and South Korea.

~ progarchives

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Squonk Opera - Astro-Rama (2008)

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Squonk Opera - Astro-Rama (2008)

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Squonk Opera - Astro-Rama (2008)

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Squonk Opera - Astro-Rama (2008)

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Squonk Opera - Astro-Rama (2008)

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Squonk Opera - Astro-Rama (2008)

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Squonk Opera - Astro-Rama (2008)

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Squonk Opera - Astro-Rama (2008)

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Squonk Opera - Astro-Rama (2008)

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