From dance company to punk/jazz band to 45-piece orchestra, Seattle's Degenerate Art Ensemble is indeed the "morphing entity," as described by one of their members, composer/musician Joshua Kohl.
Formed in 1993, the group has performed over 500 shows in 10 countries and explored such a variety of formats as music, dance, theater, film scoring, recording, sculpture, painting and performance art. (In addition to Mr. Kohl, the other members include: Haruko Nishimura, Josh Stewart and Jherek Bischoff)
On August 30th, they perform in NYC's East Village at John Zorn's new artists' space, The Stone. Much of the music being performed was made possible with support from MTC's Commissioning Music/USA 2005.
MTC recently interviewed Mr. Kohl.
MTC: How did The Stone gig come about? JK: The Curator for the Stone, for August (every month a different composer/artist curates a month long of programming at The Stone), called and said "Do you want to play such and such date? I need to know within three days." So we decided to take the gig. The August curator for The Stone was violinist Carla Kihlstedt from the Tin Hat Trio, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum among others (a frightfully brilliant woman). She and several of us Degenerates have worked together in the past with a SF based group called InkBoat run by choreographer Shinichi Koga. We had another NYC gig cancelled for October, so we thougt this would be both a great replacement and also a great chance to make a big last push and get the MTC commissioned music done, in shape and premiered.
MTC: What's the music you'll be performing? JK: We will perform a set of music for the DAE quartet which consists of: Haruko Nishimura: vocals, accordion; me: drums, cello, guitar, vocals; Josh Stewart: marimba, trumpet, metal spike, wind powered toy piano, vocals; and, Jherek Bischoff: bass, drums, casio, vocals. The set consists of mostly the music commissioned by MTC plus a couple of songs from our previous repertoire. We have been playing in this quartet formation since the start of 2005. It looks like the band make up will take another shift in 2006 - we are exciting to see what form that will take.
MTC: How would you describe your ensemble? JK: The difficulty in describing DAE is that we are a morphing entity. We will perform in a club (as we are in NYC in Aug) as a quartet, each of the four members playing at least three instruments, and the vocalist also a dancer/wild performer. But back in March we produced a concert for full 45 piece orchestra and commissioned ten world premieres. Coming up in March of '06 we will unveil our newest work for dance and music at the Moore Theater in Seattle. It is not that we are collaborating with a dance company, but we ARE a dance company as well. Same with the orchestra, the orchestra WAS DAE for a couple months. Prior to the quartet we were touring and recording as a 10 piece big band garage orchestra and I'm sure that will come again. All that said, we have a core of artists that shapes all of these disparate productions, and so they all assume a common vibe, flavor and aesthetic.
photo: Robin Bartholick
MTC: What happens during a typical/atypical performance? JK: It's really exciting and challenging for all of us, as new challenges are constantly being thrust upon us. Us musicians in the group have to go into heavy physical theater and dance training to portray characters in the dance works. For this coming March show, we are being trained in acrobatics. All the while, we are having to keep our musical skills refined and keep the music growing and expanding. So it really keeps us on our absolute edge at all times. We hope that our fans will simply know that when they come to see us, they may be surprised at what they see, but that they know it is going to be a really electrifying experience for them. So they come. Certainly from a PR stand point there are some serious challenges to communicate all of this in a sound byte.
MTC: How did the ensemble form, and how has it transformed since then? JK: In the early 90's in Seattle we were steeped in a scene on fire with fierce creativity across genres and art forms. The group emerged out of a need for a multi-art ensemble that could serve as a platform for ideas in music, dance and art as they meld together. The group has always had a core of a handful of artists (although it has mutated over the years). We have had lots of amazing people come into the group, influencing the aesthetic and infusing new energy and ideas. We began by performing entirely in rock/jazz clubs. This was the perfect venue as it is totally a cost-free way of presenting. We established our first following that way. People could come to a rock club and witness the energy of a performance artist in front of a 17 piece orchestra. Pretty exciting! Or a 20 piece orchestra playing a new live film score. As the performance element evolved and grew, we started getting invitations to perform main stage theater engagements. From there our dance works really began to take on a life of their own and evolve into really technically intensive productions. We continue to perform in all of these different venues. Clubs give us access to a different audience than a concert halls and theaters do. Street performances give us a connection to a sector of the population that we would NEVER reach otherwise. About four years ago we began touring in Europe every year, and have built some really fantastic networks there. We have begun to develop a really strong following. There is such a strong artistically open community there and public support for it! We have only done one NYC performance thus far (last year). We are really excited about beginning to perform in the Eastern US.
MTC: You mentioned your next dance/music project, which will premiere in March 2006, titled Cuckoo Crow. What is it? JK:Cuckoo Crow is a rather epic dance theater music work inspired by the bird the Cuckoo, who lays its eggs in other birds nests and is raised by the new parents as a parasite. We are exploring issues of identity, culture, image transformations. We are creating a mythology describing the life of a bird ousted from its mother's nest by a Cuckoo, and its gradual transformation (or extreme makeover if you would) into an all powerful avant garde superstar. Picture strange wiry trees in which musician-creatures climb on and fly around and create sounds on invented instruments; another being dances a fierce bird-like dance close to the ground; there are strange insane surgeons that transform this being into a human form; the story culminates in an otherworldly concert.
