Toy-Box Trio creates a lilting, lurching soundtrack to a carnivalesque world

Entering the musical world of the Toy-Box Trio is a bit like walking the warped corridors of a carnival mind.

The oom-pah-pah beats and tinkling timbres keep taking detours into odd syncopations and dissonances. The lilting circus melodies are enlivened by unexpected lurches. And what sawdust ensemble ever included a typewriter as its sole percussion instrument?

Toy-Box Trio is the brainchild of Cornish-trained composer Harlan Glotzer. Its core lineup, until last week, consisted of concertina (Glotzer), tuba (Nate Lee) and toy piano (Dana Wen). But with Lee departing for further musical studies, the group will be trading its rumbling brass anchor for the double-bass of Shaunessey Fischer Scott when it plays at the Can Can on Sunday.

The band's 2009 CD, "Miniature Menagerie," suggests a deep-string sound should work as well for it as Lee's brass. Several tunes on it feature concertina/toy-piano/cello arrangements that make just as striking an impression.

A circus atmosphere dominates the trio's sound, but it's spiced with baroque touches, minimalist nods and a strong gypsy flavor. Glotzer, who writes all the compositions, describes his work as "a sonic landscape evocative of dusty old music boxes and haunted carnivals." "Tightrope" shows off the trio at its best. After a chiming fanfare, it captures perfectly, in hesitant melody, the delicate balance of a high-wire act.

Toy-Box Trio has a look to match its sound. Last week in a show at a Fremont art gallery, Glotzer, in bowler hat and waistcoat, resembled your archetypal song-and-dance man. Wen, in her broad-striped stockings and festive military jacket, seated on a very small stool in front of a very small piano, also tapped into some heightened visual reality.

How does she deal with being hunched over such a tiny instrument for the whole length of a concert?

"I take standing breaks," she says.

Toy-Box Trio will be joined by Mr. and Mrs. Muffins, an equally eccentric outfit whose sound ranges from ethereal bossa nova to quirky chamber pop.

Michael Upchurch: mupchurch@seattletimes.com