In so many groups that goose classical music instrumentally, rhythmically, or theoretically, the classical still manages to win out. Perhaps these artists have been browbeaten or are too afraid to take the plunge. Maybe they just don't know where to start. Maybe they're just goofy on mothballs.

NeoCollage ain't scared. Plunge? Hell, this young quintet does a cannonball. Formed in 2004, when all of its members were freshman at the Eastman School of Music, NeoCollage started out merely as a group of friends who wanted to play together despite their instruments' supposed incompatibility. The result has become a brilliant synthesis of classical tones, funky rhythms, and electronic textures. It'll blow the doors off the way you think about classical music, and music in general. NeoCollage proves there are actually a few unexplored avenues left, and they sound so sweet.

The band - Megan Bledsoe (electric harp), Stephen Clark (double bass), Nick Revel (violin), Curtis Stewart (violin), and Rick Williams (percussion) - has just released "City Nights," a concept album that explores a night out that goes all night. Don't let the lilting strings on the intro fool ya, this is a funky, picturesque affair with plenty of soul and subtle complexity. It's beautiful, really. The band calls it pop music.

City: Musically what happened first? Who fired the first shot?

Revel: When we first started it was completely improvisational, just because there was no music for our instrumentation. We didn't know how to write for each other yet. So all we would do was get together and jam and see what possibilities there were. Once we learned about each other's instruments and each other's interests, that's when we tried our hand at actually writing tunes.

Was there a common thread, or was it all over the map?

Revel: From the beginning the tunes started off with a little bit more of a classical feel just because that was a common denominator we all had. And then we started branching out more into the more poppier, perhaps hip-hop sounds.

Bledsoe: As we got to know each other we realized we all had similar interests musically. We wanted to do some fusion things, outside the box of what we were really offered to do at Eastman.

So NeoCollage goes against the grain?

Revel: I think a lot of string players that come into conservatory, they have this sorta one-track mind; orchestra, chamber music, or solo.

Stewart: Especially being classical musicians. They teach us to think in their rules and we're just trying to be free in our own way.

Revel: But Eastman does a great job of letting you know what other opportunities there are out there.

You're breathing new life into classical, don't you think? Maybe pop too?

Williams: Yeah I would say that's part of the goal as well. The way pop music is right now, a lot of it's just the same old stuff. A lot of people want something new, unique, different.

Revel: Also if you bridge pop and classical with classical instruments, people will see the classical instruments and say, ‘Oh, what other pieces have classical instruments?' Or then they might go listen to a Brahms symphony or something.

Does academia still frown upon this?

Revel: I think it depends on the teacher or who you're talking to. A lot of the teachers I know and like at Eastman, they're very supportive.

Stewart: Every teacher I have has pushed me forward.

Bledsoe: I think it's also because we're taking a lot of things we've learned at school. It's not like we have no basis for thinking outside the box. We really have learned a lot in school: theory and the historical elements and where music comes from.

How did going electric change things?

Williams: When I got the electronic percussion instrument I play and Megan got the electric harp, that completely changed the sound of the group. When we first started gigging and recorded the first album I was using a marimba for everything, which is huge and a pain in the ass to carry around. That's why I wound up getting the MalletKat. It's much smaller, and with the synthesizer it has a bank of lots of different sounds, so you have hundreds of instruments in one.

Bledsoe: I run [the harp] through an effects pedal so I can sound like an electric guitar with a lot of distortion. I can sound like a blues guitar, I can sound like an electronic instrument, but I'm still approaching it as a harpist. I think that opened up a window. We have so many different genres that we can play now by - I know it sounds kinda like cheating - just pushing a little button.

But there's talent in knowing what button to hit.

Stewart: And when to hit it.

How does NeoCollage paint its neo collage? Where do the ideas come from?

Bledsoe: Everywhere. We take turns, we bring in an idea, or we'll just start from free improvisation. We'll hear something we like then we'll take that and work together because we all know what we can do best to add to the song.

Williams: I think a lot of it has to do with the instrumentation. In order to write for the instruments we have, that kind of in a way determines what we're going to play.

It's working so far.

Stewart: We recorded ourselves for the first time after we had just written this song "Jungle Dance." It was the first tune we all worked together on. And we listened to it and it was like, ‘Whoa, is that us? Wow.' You know, the sound of the harp mixed with the marimba and the strings playing melody... sounds you don't hear on classical pieces. It was inspiring.

Bledsoe: One of my biggest fears was we were going to try this thing but maybe not quite get it, maybe there was a reason nobody does it this way. I didn't personally have any sight of where I wanted the group to go. I didn't know of any sound we were striving for. I was just interested in seeing what we could do. And we've been validated.

For more information on NeoCollage visit neocollage.net.