CrossTalk is one of a kind - the only strictly electronic percussion group in the world.

The group, along with the University of Arizona's drum line and the Rosewood Marimba Band, will give a free concert tonight at 7:30 at Crowder Hall.

Electronic percussion involves the use of synthesizers to create music.

"The group performs only on electronic percussion controllers - which read the strokes and send instructions to synthesizers to make the sound," said Norman Weinberg, associate professor of music and CrossTalk member.

Another of the group's distinctions is that it is composed of both faculty and students.

"It is great to be in an ensemble with faculty in which they not only coach you but perform as well," said percussion performance senior Lance Saxerud.

The group chose its name from a contest entry and is a term for a mistake in electronic percussion.

"CrossTalk is what happens in electronics when vibrations from one electronic trigger ends up tripping another one that you didn't intend," Saxerud said. "It's a bad thing - it is something we have to be careful of."

Saxerud contrasted the live musical quality of a piece he wrote, which CrossTalk will perform tonight, against the experience of listening to a record at a club.

"The people are what is making everything and not just a record going around," he said.

Beyond the opportunity to compose and present his music, Saxerud realizes the value of performing with CrossTalk to his UA music education.

"It is a great hands-on experience," he said. "You get to work with so many tools that at other schools you wouldn't get to work with."

In addition to directing the percussion studies in the school of music, Gary Cook is the director of the Rosewood Marimba Band, which will also perform tonight.

"We play basically Ragtime tunes, such as work by Scott Joplin," Cook said. "We will be selling our CD, which just came out, at the concert."

The Rosewood Marimba Band will perform a piece employing decks of playing cards.

"There is a piece we're doing called 'Hit the Deck.' It is a piece that has four players performing around a table - they strike the table with playing cards, hitting them perpendicular to the table," Cook said. "It is kind of a 'Stomp' thing, but it was done before 'Stomp' existed."

Similar to a game of 52-card pick-up, the players throw their cards at the end of the selection.

"It is an unusual piece, with complex rhythms and interesting instrumentation," Cook said. "It ends with the players throwing their cards in the air - like 52 pick-up, times four."

This concert will showcase the wide range of performance genres within the percussion department of the UA School of Music.

"For one thing, this is a concert to hear for the variety. It shows many different facets of the percussion studies area," Cook said. "The music is very accessible to listeners and it is free."

Strong visual elements will also be used in the concert.

"It is a concert that is really enjoyable as far as the music that's performed and stunning visually because of all of the instruments and the visual aspect of the players striking the instruments," Weinberg said.