As recently mentioned, this month (10-16 July – full details below) sees the Dead Rat Orchestra and Poland’s Sutari, two of the world’s most prominent avant-folk ensembles, join forces for a headline tour of the UK. Flying under the banner of Free Folk in Brexit Britain we caught up with them both to talk about their own backgrounds and this new collaboration.
The Dead Rat Orchestra (DRO) are by no means strangers to these pages, having written guest posts for their project The Cut (2014), a site-specific musical tour undertaken by canal boat along 273 miles of waterway and Tyburnia (2015/17), for which we were a media sponsor, exploring 17th/18th-century gallows ballads and their sociopolitical history. The trio is made up of Daniel Merrill, Nathaniel Mann and Robin Alderton.
Sutari is the brainchild of three young women: singers, instrumentalists and performers – Kasia Kapela, Basia Songin and Zosia Zembrzuska, (they featured in our Lost in Transmission Show No 36). Like the DRO they are also busy with other projects as Kasia explained “We still work on both theatre and music projects. Zosia is a manager of culture, promoting contemporary Polish composers outside Poland. Basia is a storyteller and she performs with two music duos: Mehehe and Kuso. Kasia has a family-based band, Kapela Timingeriu, who play gypsy and klezmer music.”
Although they are both from different cultures, they both have an enormous depth of creativity in their approach to music and performance making this a unique collaboration and highly anticipated tour…something we should certainly encourage more of in the UK which can only bring rewarding experiences for the audience and the players.
Origins & Name
Robin (DRO): DRO have been together for over 15 years now, mining a seam between folk, improv and electronic experimentalism. I think we’re like restless magpies, trying to build nests out of the interesting things we find; the feel of a moment of music or how two elements may crash against each other in an exciting way.
We met at Colchester Arts Centre where we all worked in the early 2000s, exposed to some amazing artists coming through at the time. It took a while for us to sit down and make music together but it seemed a natural thing when it happened. By now we have a natural understanding of each other and a shared language to draw on.
Daniel: We’ve been asked so many times about the name that after 15 years the real answer has become like a well-rehearsed script. So a few years back we decided to invent new stories that are maybe more interesting. Like any good yarn, there is normally some element of truth laced in with the fantastic. Did you know that the British National Archives includes a mummified rat that died eating its way through the national records? We didn’t put it there, but it has recently been 3D scanned and printed to ensure that it can be safely made available to the public. With our preferences for rummaging through archives, this rat is something of our spirit animal.
Kasia (Sutari): We are from different cities and have diverse educations but it is this diversity that we try to bring together as an ensemble. The place where we met was the alternative Theater Academy run by Gardzienice theatre, in the Polish countryside. It is a place with a very creative approach to music and art and after we’d finished there, we decided to work together.
Our name is Lithuanian. We were inspired by the old feminine songs, Sutartines, and the idea of common sound in the polyphony, so we called ourselves Sutari, which means to resonate, to agree.
Meeting
Dan (DRO): We first met when Rasmus invited both DRO and Sutari to perform at Fanø Free Folk Festival in Denmark last year. For the DRO this is one of our all-time favourite festivals, being in a really unique location (a tiny village on a tiny island off the west coast of Denmark, amongst beautiful traditional buildings, in a place with a wonderful musical tradition of its own).
Before we saw Sutari play we had noticed that their album had a picture of them holding meat cleavers on it, which we took as a good omen because of our own musical links to kitchen utensils. Of course, when Sutari performed we were totally blown away by the resonances between our music, a feeling that was highlighted when Sutari said that they always hoped to meet their male musical equivalents… The rats were looking at each other in astonishment; That Rasmus knew what he was doing when he put us on the bill together!
Kasia: We heard a lot of inspiring music at Fanø Free Folk Festival, but the thing that drew us to DRO was the cleaver, a common feature in both Sutari and DRO’s work. And when we listened to each other’s music, we realised we had much more in common.
Crossover & Similarities
Robin (DRO): Beyond the obvious use of meat cleavers and kitchen utensils, Sutari make some truly beautiful music, and in the midst of it there is an edge – they are not afraid to juxtapose something ornate with something brutal or ordinary with extra-ordinary – these kind of clashes are things we also enjoy.
I think there is a humour or lightness of touch in their approach, a confidence not to take the easy route and make something ‘safe’…
Kasia: There is still a lot to discover. We could say that we both have a shared desire to express ideas with a free musical imagination. We all try to tell stories and combine meanings through musical expression.
A Tour Theme
The cultural impact of Polish and European migration in England
Robin (DRO): As Dan mentioned, we met Sutari (from Poland) after travelling to Denmark to a festival full of international artists. The freedom to do that means something to us and is important to us. Our music is a melting pot of ideas and references, as is our culture in England, to us that is what England is and can be. Of course, it’s never that simple, but it felt apt to invite our new friends to come and feed into that melting pot.
We’ve always been interested in having a dialogue with our audiences in one way or another – with this tour, we were interested in targeting places with stronger Polish communities and by bringing Sutari into the fold the hope is to engage further.
Kasia: We felt drawn to the invite by DRO to explore the cultural impact in England during our tour, as we too are confronting an unsatisfactory and non-transparent migration policy in our own country.
Collaboration and Expectations
Robin (DRO): We’re hoping there will be the opportunity to make something together, the joy as ever is in the discovery though, so you’ll have to wait and see!
It has been really nice to be able to put together a split 7″ for the tour, perhaps that’s a stepping stone…
Kasia: We would ask the audience not to expect anything, as this the best way to try something new together. We hope to involve the public too, with the idea that music is for all, and music is everywhere.
Looking Forward To / Challenges
Robin (DRO): I think watching Sutari every night will be really exciting. But I also think we’re keen to talk to people, spark conversations, see what’s happening.
In many ways, the greatest challenge is pulling ourselves together for an extended period of time – Daniel now spends much of his time in Egypt, Nathan in Nottingham and myself in Colchester. The internet is our friend and the best moments are back and forths on WhatsApp over ideas or youtube videos! I think we’re all massively looking forward to spending some time together as a three-piece making new music, something we don’t often get the opportunity to focus on these days.
In terms of Sutari, we’ll see what they bring and challenge ourselves to be able to respond in kind!
Kasia: Touring with another band is both a human and artistic experience and we hope to grow together and to share the result with the audience. The secret is that we are very open and ready to listen and to be heard. Anything is possible and we can’t wait to meet up with them again.
SUTARI & DEAD RAT ORCHESTRA
10th July Colchester Arts Centre 7.30pm / £8 / www.colchesterartscentre.com
11th July Norwich Arts Centre 8.30pm / £10 / norwichartscentre.co.uk
12th July London Secret Outdoor Location! Bow E5 (Nest Collective) / www.thenestcollective.co.uk
13th July Nottingham The Maze (Cultural Vibrations Promotions) 8pm/ £10 / www.themazerocks.com
14th July Hull The New Adelphi 8pm / www.theadelphi.com
15th July Leeds Polish Centre (Mewl Music Promotions) / www.mewlmusic.com
16th July Oxford Holywell Music Rooms (Oxford Contemporary Music)
