Photo courtesy of Sonmi

Asheville-based electronic outfit Sonmi was recently the victim of a burglary, robbing them of equipment worth $2,500. Shuffle contributor Alli Marshall sent out the following release on the situation with information on how you can help the band out in their time of need:

Local electronic group Sonmi (already veterans of Moogfest and Bele Chere) played what may have been the best-attended AHA AVL show last night at Moog Music. It was a stellar hour-long show including an encore during which the band broke out a new song they’d composed on the Moog equipment they’d borrowed for the show. Spirits were high — the performance (which will air later on the Shuffle Magazine website) was a wild success and the band announced the drop of its new record.

All that makes it even more crushing that, following such a fantastic evening, $2,500 worth of Sonmi’s equipment was stolen, including an 81-key MIDI controller and a Prophet analog synth. The synthesizer is the biggest blow because it’s what accounts for the band’s analog components and is, according to percussionist Dave Mathes, “a huge part of our sound.” Luckily, the band has its sounds backed up, so those can be plugged into a new module.

The burglary happened in the parking lot of Meadows Apartments — the passenger side lock of Mike McBride’s (synths/production) car turns out to be defective. A police report has been filed and Mathes says the band has people checking in with local pawn shops.

In the mean time, Sonmi needs to replace its equipment ASAP as they’ve been booked to play Camp Bisco in a month and “need to be practicing now.” Since the group was already paying off equipment (including the stolen MIDI controller) and just financed an album, they’re not in a position to replace the lost equipment. They will be sending out digital copies of the new album and, while it’s free, hope that fans will be inspired to make a contribution through their Bandcamp.com page (Mountain Xpress will post that link as soon as it’s ready).

Donate to Sonmi’s secure, online Thief Relief fund at
http://www.sonmiband.com/donate.

Any other help with securing replacement equipment or finding the stolen instruments would be greatly appreciated. Contact through Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/sonmimusic) and Twitter: @sonmiband.