Alastair Galbraith | pl

Alastair Galbraith is a musician from Dunedin, New Zealand.

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 Punishmnent and Nocturnal Projections.

Galbraith's solo career has included numerous early cassettes and 7"s on Bruce Russell's 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, where 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 Wanganui.

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 Volume 2 of "Long Wires In Dark Museums", 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. .