AMERICAN Thomas Truax is one of the most imaginative characters on the pop music fringe. Since the early 2000s, he’s been releasing records and travelling the world performing with his evolving band of surreal self-made Harry Partch-esque instruments including a motorised drum machine made of bike wheels called Mother Superior and a souped-up Dr Seuss-ian Gramophone called The Hornicator, as well as his venerable resonator guitar (named simply Hank).

He crafts rich, poetically evocative and lively songs about insects, trees, technology, and a lifelong obsession with things lunar, including various reasons Why Dogs Howl at The Moon.

His eight studio LPs include a highly-rated covers album Songs From The Films Of David Lynch, and his latest, Jetstream Sunset, features a powerhouse special ingredient in drummer Brian Viglione (of the Dresden Dolls/Violent Femmes). But while Thomas’s albums have received considerable praise, it’s his energetic and often surreal mix of man, machine, musicianship, storytelling, and audience interaction that make up the live shows for which he is best known.

The Rockin’ Inventions UK tour will include the British live debut of a new instrument the Saxogramophone.

Thomas Truax will debut his new instrument at the Strange Daze Festival in Cardiff on Sunday, May 29.

Notable Truax supporters and collaborators have included Jarvis Cocker, Duke Special, Richard Hawley, Amanda Palmer, and the late author Terry Pratchett.

Thomas’s surreal rendition of the classic Greensleeves will be featured on an upcoming Shakespeare-related compilation album Food Of Love, to be released on Autolycus records in May in conjunction with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

For tickets to the festival please visit facebook.com/strangedazefest/