Named after the diminutive and once ubiquitous Eastern European automobile, Trabants is a rotating collaborative of musicians that finds its muse in the dusty bins of 60’s instrumental surf, garage and psychedelic music from around the world.

Formed by guitarist/songwriter Eric Penna in Boston, MA, Trabants features a rotating line-up of musicians playing a blend of psychedelic and surf music inspired by obscure instrumentals and library music records from around the world. The rotating lineup was initially a necessity since many members played full-time in busy touring acts.

Trabants’ first public appearances at the Plough and Stars where the band played many epic all-night shows snowballed into Trabants’ first full-length, “Highwire Surfing” which garnered an Independent Music Award nomination for best instrumental album alongside placement on the show “Becoming” featuring Johnny Knoxville. After some touring and opening slots for legends such as Dick Dale (documented on the band’s live album, “An Evening with Trabants…

Live at New Alliance”) Penna relocated to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film and television music where he wrote and recorded the band’s second album, “Cinematic”. With a new home base, Trabants maintained its rotating line-up to utilize a new much deeper pool of talent and maintain the propulsive, ever-changing freshness to different performances.