Electric Kompany is an American band that was formed by Kevin R. Gallagher. By exploring, arranging, and commissioning music for guitar, keyboard, drums, and bass, the group mixes classical and rock music in a genre that has been described as Art rock, Experimental Music, Avant-Progressive, or Avant-Rock. Electric Kompany has performed in the New York City area and was one of the featured bands at Full Force: The New Rock Complexity, a festival curated by Gallagher and John Zorn.
Electric Kompany was founded by Kevin R. Gallagher, a guitarist who spent much of his career as a competition-winning classical guitarist who performed all around the world. In 2001, Gallagher began improvising and arranging music for electric guitar from composers such as J.S. Bach and Rob Haskins and soon began holding auditions for the group that would become Electric Kompany. His mission was to launch a group that combined the classical and popular music worlds. "I can't say there were any obvious influences for the group," says Gallagher. "It's just me coming to terms with who I am - a mix of a classical and rock musician. I can perform rock music or classical music fluently, but I never felt totally satisfied in either world." Since Electric Kompany began performing, they have arranged music by Nick Didkovsky, Marc Mellits, and Jacob Ter Veldhuis, and have commissioned music by David Laganella and Kristen Hevner. They have a performance schedule that includes many concerts in the New York City area and have been a featured band at Full Force: The New Rock Complexity.
Mission statement
The mission statement of Electric Kompany states that "at this time in music history, composers are freely combining Avant-garde and American popular music aesthetics. This new 'Avant - Pop' music is daring, exciting, even shocking. However, most composers are writing this 'new' music for 'old' instruments. As beautiful as these kinds of pieces are, there still is a tremendous lack of 'modern music' written for 'modern instruments' - in our case - the electric guitar, keyboards, drum set, and electric bass. This seems to be the next logical step in music evolution and is the main reason for the formation of the rock quartet, Electric Kompany."
