Part of the residency Sympathetic String Band & Friends
Southern Cross
"Sympathetic String Band’s back at the Southern Cross on September 27th with the great Spiral Galaxy from Chicago!
For nearly a decade, flutist Sara Gossett and treated machines manipulator Plastic Crimewave have created devotional sonic voyages and droney soundscapes. Utilizing a 70s drum machine pulse, they conjure the textural and kosmische vibe of Germanic seekers like Yatha Sidhra, Popul Vuh, Achim Reichel, and early Kraftwerk.
The duo's first album on Cardinal Fuzz/Lion records features special guests Jean-Herve Peron of legendary avant-German collective Faust (whom Spiral Galaxy was lucky enough to open for), Kawabata Makoto of Japanese psych gods Acid Mothers Temple, and guitar wunderkind Ryley Walker. Spiral Galaxy II debuted on Cardinal Fuzz/Feeding Tube in July of '26, featuring guests like Powers/Rolin Duo, Drazek Fuscaldo, and weirdo legend Bobby Conn, who also produced the cosmic groove platter.
Spiral Galaxy has toured the UK (playing with Mark Fry and members of Comus) and Europe, and played Chicago Psych Fest, Milwaukee Psych Fest, and The Feed Me Weird Things series.
Plastic Crimewave is the creator of the famed Galactic Zoo Dossier psychedelic fanzine and label imprint for Drag City, and has toured the world as a DJ and leading his own spacepunk units like Plastic Crimewave Syndicate. Sara Gossett is a renowned painter who has done LP covers for releases by Harvey Mandel, Erkin Koray, The Syn, Green Seagull, and more.
Expect a set from Spiral Galaxy and a group improvisation from the Sympathetic String Band. "
"The Sympathetic String Band is a Toronto-based music ensemble that fuses renaissance tonality with improvisational modalities. Inter-weaving a multitude of stringed instruments such as Appalachian and hammered dulcimers, bowed and plucked psaltries, and guitars tuned and played outside the boundaries of standard technique, the group explores music through free improvisations, often within the context of a prompt, concept, or tuning.
The group has been in residence at the Tranzac on the fourth/last Sunday of the month from 7:30-9:30pm for over year now. Each month brings an opportunity to feature new artists and practices, and welcomes their collaboration in a group improvisation with the ever-changing Sympathetic String Band ensemble. "