Landfill Harmonic

December 24, 2012

This video has been making the rounds. It is a clip from Landfill Harmonic, an upcoming feature-length documentary about a remarkable musical orchestra in Paraguay, where the musicians play instruments made out of trash. I decided to repost it as it seems like an appropriate message for the holidays—it's very inspiring!

Cateura, Paraguay is a town largely built on top of a landfill. Like many poor communities built on or next to garbage dumps, recyclers rummage through the trash for sellable goods. According to the Landfill Harmonic website, Cateura's children are frequently at risk of getting involved with drugs and gangs.

Nicolas, a recycler who lives by the garbage dump started making instruments out of scraps that he found. He had no previous experience making musical instruments.

Maestro Luis Szaran, director of "Sounds of the Earth," was inspired by creativity of Nicholas and formed a "recycled orchestra" with children living at the dump. The orchestra now has 30 members. The recycled instruments include a cello made from an oil can and pieces of wood and a saxophone made of spoons and buttons

According to the website, Landfill Harmonic "shows how trash and recycled materials can be transformed into beautiful sounding musical instruments, but more importantly, it brings witness to the transformation of precious human beings."

Donations and musical instruments are also being accepted to support the project.

These can be sent to:

The Landfill Harmonic Project
Eureka Productions Inc.
3419 E. University Dr.
Phoenix, AZ 85034

Season's Greetings!