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Moraine is an omnivorous instrumental quintet featuring violinist Alicia Allen, drummer Stephen Cavit, reed player Jim DeJoie, bassist/baliset player Kevin Millard, and guitarist Dennis Rea. Moraine’s expansive original repertoire spans avant-rock, modern jazz, deconstructed Chinese traditional music, and more. In a typical Moraine performance, haunting melodies cohabit with crushing riffs, lush textures, propulsive swing, and explosive improvisation. Moraine has been enthusiastically received by audiences ranging from jazz aficionados to metalheads. The group has performed in high-profile venues including the Seattle Art Museum Olympic Sculpture Park, Artopia festival, Beyond the Threshold International Dance Festival, Sounds Outside, and the Jazz: The Second Century concert series presented by Earshot Jazz, and has shared the stage with such renowned international artists as Richard Pinhas (Heldon) and Finnish dancer Mirva Makinen. A full-length Moraine CD, Manifest Density, was released in fall 2009 by NYC-based MoonJune Records and has received dozens of rave reviews worldwide.
BAND BIOS
Dennis Rea's adventurous guitar playing blends modern jazz, creative rock, experimental music, and world musical traditions into an approach that is uniquely his own, encompassing haunting lyricism, enigmatic textures, agile improvisation, and the raw dynamism of rock. Over the years Dennis has led or been a key contributor to numerous innovative groups, including Land, Stackpole, Axolotl, Savant, Earthstar, Ink, Eric Apoe & They, Identity Crisis, the Gang of Formosa, Moraine, and Ting Bu Dong. He has performed or recorded with such prominent creative musicians as Han Bennink, Hector Zazou, Klaus Schulze, Stuart Dempster, and Chinese rock megastar Cui Jian, as well as members of King Crimson, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Ministry, and the Sun Ra Arkestra. He was a nominee for Best Guitarist in the 2005 Seattle Weekly Music Awards, and won a Golden Ear Award for Best Northwest Outside Jazz Group in 2000 as leader of the improvising quartet Stackpole. He is also an accomplished author whose most recent work is the book Live at the Forbidden City: Musical Encounters in China and Taiwan. For more information, see Dennis Rea's Myspace site and the Dennis Rea Web site.
Born in Nashville, East Coast native Alicia Allen came to Seattle in 1994 and soon began playing electric guitar and violin in local bands Big Sister and X-tra Virgin. She has recorded and toured the country with Jeremy Enigk, performing works from his solo album, Return of the Frog Queen, at the Knitting Factory in New York, the First Avenue Club in Minneapolis, and the 40-Watt Club in Athens, GA. She is often seen playing violin in Seattle with Eric Apoe and They and making cameo appearances with the james dejoie quartet. Playing violin in Daniel Barry’s Walk All Ways has given her a taste of playing latin jazz, and her experience singing with Jim DeJoie’s Safe Behind Glass and Dr. Fleek and his Army of Experimental Children has cemented her love of vocal work.
Jim DeJoie hails from the Pacific Northwest and revels in the practice of bringing together diverse musical genres in distinctive combinations. James writes and performs music that broadens the scope of what may be defined as “jazz,” and through his use of electronics and world-influenced rhythms, creates a genre unto itself. James is equally fluent on baritone and alto saxophones, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, and percussion. In addition to playing in and composing for his wide-ranging joietet, James is a regular contributor to such top-flight Northwest jazz ensembles as Wayne Horvitz’s Washington Composers Orchestra, Daniel Barry’s Walk All Ways, the Jim Knapp Orchestra, and the Jazz Police. With fellow Moraine member Alicia Allen, he explores his song-based musical interests on a broad array of instruments in Dr. Fleek and the Army of Experimental Children. He is also active performing classical music and was recently the featured soloist in a Baritone Saxophone Concerto written for him by composer David Gaines, which he recorded with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra in Bratislava in 2008.
One of Kevin Millard's first gigs was free-improvising on a community radio station in Madison, WI. After several years playing experimental music, including Seattle bands dot.communists and his own avant-groove band Panopticon, he realized his musical "dues" were in arrears. He proceeded to pay them off in a long string of rock, pop & country bands including Thornton Creek, the Jeunes, and The Melody Unit; now he is returning to his avant-garde roots. Kevin also mixes video for Library Science. Kevin met Ruth Davidson shortly after she arrived in Minneapolis, where they improvised Chapman Stick & cello duets. Years later, both now in Seattle, he recommended that she check out Dennis Rea - and now the circle is complete.
In addition to holding down the drum chair for Moraine and for legendary ‘90s Seattle jazz-rock units Outhouse and Free Consultation, Stephen Cavit is an Emmy Award–winning film composer and Composer in Residence at Seattle's St. James Cathedral. His first feature film, The Four Corners of Nowhere, premiered at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. He has contributed music to the films Chuck & Buck and The Good Girl for director Miguel Arteta. Other recent work includes Shadow Life with actress/director Julia Sweeny (Saturday Night Live), Pike Place Market—Soul of a City for PBS, and Blue Vinyl for HBO (also a selection at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival). Stephen has also contributed regularly to the MTV shows The Real World and Road Rules. In addition, Stephen was awarded one of six fellowships to the 2000 Sundance Composers Lab where he studied with composers such as Carter Burwell (Fargo), George S. Clinton (Austin Powers 1 & 2), and Graeme Revell (Human Nature).
PRESS QUOTES
"...a towering quintet that harks back to the three years [Rea] profitably spent in the two Chinas. He has arranged for it a small number of choice Chinese tunes, old and recent, traditional and not, which become gorgeous jazz- and rock-inflected pieces in his and his colleagues’ hands. But the group covers a lot of terrain, drawing on 'fractured bebop,' as Rea puts it, as well as cranked-up, rhythmically complex rock – and much more ... Listening to the electric-string-quartet-plus-drums, you may find yourself swept over ice fields or other little-considered terrain."—Peter Monaghan, Earshot Jazz
“…Dark timbres, dense harmonic aggregations, and exotic melodies abound … while the emphasis here is clearly on ensemble playing, Rea’s guitar work continually imbues the proceedings with splashes of color from his global grab bag of stylistic goodies—including liberal dashes of oriental intrigue.”—Barry Cleveland, Guitar Player
"Moraine is a unique sort-of progressive band from Seattle that don't quite sound like anyone else. … there is an organic feeling to this music with uplifting melodies and thoughtful solos which never sound like anyone is showing off. Even more than the inspired solos it is the exotic melodies and crafty arrangements that make this band special. Considering that this is an American band, they often don't sound that way. … quirky, creative & filled with surprising twists and turns, well worth checking out no matter what you are into."—Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery, NYC
"This vibrant Seattle-based quintet abides by a rather distinctive group-centric sound that draws upon the musicians’ influences, spanning electronics, jazz, jazz-fusion, progressive-rock and a consortium of styles. The beauty of it pertains to their multifarious aggregation of genres, all woven into a neatly packed program. They morph the best of various musical worlds here, amid turbulent strings passages, thrusting rhythms, and jubilantly executed melody lines.
"The band conveys a myriad of emotive attributes via these resonating compositions. At times, they embark on a frenzied array of soloing jaunts, where everything in the band’s path is devoured. With traces of vintage, Jean-Luc Ponty style fusion along with the weighty impact of King Crimson, the artists inject resonating choruses, awash with cellist Ruth Davidson and violinist Alicia Allen’s streaming staccato lines. However, they soften the mix with eloquent phrasings, complemented by intriguing noise-shaping activities and guitarist Dennis Rea’s blistering crunch chords.
"There’s a lot to sink your mind’s eye into here, but the ensemble equalizes the cerebral factors with hearty melodies and pumping jazz-rock grooves. ... A musical highlight for 2009, regardless of genre or rigid categorizations…"—Glenn Astarita, Jazz Reviews.com
"The instrumental Rock ensemble Moraine combines a dark palette with unique instrumentation and driving, sprawling architectonic musical structures. … It is one of those CDs that immediately gets your attention from the opening bars of the first cut. One could speculate as to what influences the band has had, but what’s most important is that for a listening experience it’s truly tabula rasa time. Moraine doesn’t really sound like anybody. They are a Prog-Rock original, that most rare of entities. They do not take an easy path. They do not rely on riffs of a gratuitous nature or other filler material. … They achieve a continuously compelling group sound that grabs you by the ears and does not let go. …Mr. Rea and company have achieved orbit status. ... Such refreshingly outside Rock invites repeated absorption, and gives you a feeling of anticipation for future editions. This band could pan out to be the biggest Prog thing since Beefheart, Crimson, Gary Lucas and/or the Softs. Time will tell. They are off to an auspicious start with Manifest Density.—Gregory Applegate, Gapplegate Music
(4 stars) "Moraine ... provides instrumental music that is passionate and emotional but complex, challenging, and abstract. ... Moraine's appreciation of world music is definitely one of their strong points; during the course of this 54-minute CD, they incorporate elements of everything from Asian music to Middle Eastern/Arabic music to East European gypsy music - and those world music influences only add to Manifest Density's richness. ... adventurous listeners who have some patience will find that the more they listen to Manifest Density, the more this album reveals its excellence."—Alex Henderson, All Music Guide
"Moraine is really the kind of music that can save progressive music from clichés"—Michel Delville, The Wrong Object
"Incredible jazz chamber rock fusion ... Moraine will intrigue and energize the listener as they obliterate all boundaries. ... people looking for something new and different will enjoy this powerful and intelligent music."—Brad Walseth, JazzChicago.net
"...overall, this is an album destined to be declared an instant classic by listeners & reviewers worldwide! I give it my MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, & declare it the pick of this year for 'most creative and inspiring musical experience!'"—Rotcod Zzaj, Improvijazzation Nation
“…a masterfully twisted quintet crushing five pounds of prog and symph-metal into a two-pound neoclassicalist bag. … There's not an ounce of ego or gloryhogging anywhere, just the sheer exuberance of playing in ensemble. … a hurtling juggernaut of grace and insanity that re-orients the listener's perceptics and frays his nerves while revving up the temporal lobes and ectoplasm … Any track here is a sure-fire attention getter.”—Mark S. Tucker, Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange
"Excellent, original, fresh, personal, experimental ... in short a fantastic disc and absolutely captivating from beginning to end. ... A brilliant CD absolutely recommended for lovers of progressive, Canterbury, experimental, and RIO. ... Highly recommended."—El Retorno del Gigante, Argentina
“The band stands alone as one of the few acts that can put forth a contemporary sound without including vocals; the strings and various ancillary elements pop up through Manifest Density to tell a narrative as rich as any heard this year. … listeners will eagerly be anticipating anything that Moraine may do in the future...”—James McQuiston, Neofutur
(4 stars) “Manifest Density is like a head-on collision between the Mahavishu Orchestra, Univers Zero, King Crimson, Present, and Dr. Nerve. ... Moraine is hard to classify yet impossible to ignore. …for those who are feeling brave and in the mood for some experimental sounds, this will be a ride worth taking over and over again."—Pete Pardo, Sea of Tranquility
“This would be the best fusion jazz record of 2009, except that it’s not quite fusion jazz. Then again, that’s what makes it the best fusion jazz record of 2009! Lost? Let’s say that Manifest Density is the missing link between fusion jazz and RIO... At least, that’s the best image I can find. Intelligently written, brilliantly executed, with gusto and just enough good sense. ... I can’t find another band to compare them to - and that’s huge. ... Oh, so rich. Bravo.”—Francois Couture, Monsieur Délire
“RIO meets King Crimson and Univers Zero. Killer stuff!”—Julian Belanger, Host of "The Purple Room,” CJAM 91. 5 FM, Windsor/Detroit
“If you take time to capture the complex compositions, your efforts are rewarded with an absolutely unique sound and music that has, even after the umpteenth hearing, more and more refinement to offer ... One quickly realizes that, despite the fact that this is their debut album, these are no beginners. … Manifest Density is a great work. ... Absolutely recommended!”—Ingo Andruschkewitsch, Musik an Sich (Germany)
(4 stars) “music that seems modern in every way."—babysue.com
9 out of 10 stars - Rezensator (Germany)
…very satisfying on all sorts of artistic and musical levels. … ‘Uncle Tang’s Cabinet of Dr Caligari’ is a Rea composition that I’m sure the late great Frank Zappa would look down on with admiration and perhaps a little puzzlement at a mesmerizingly good band that pulls no punches!”—Acid Dragon (France)
“The band led by guitarist extraordinaire Dennis Rea is a powerhouse of individuals with advanced musical ability and compositional prowess but instead of cramming every nook and cranny with musical schizophrenia, they choose a different path. … There is enough amazing playing here to satisfy even the most ardent fan of titanic technique but with enough melody to give casual listeners something to get their ears around.“—Rob Hudson, modmove.com
“Manifest Destiny is one of those CDs that captures your attention right from the start of the first section; here is something exciting, different, and innovative that is challenging and complex. Adventurous listeners who possess a little patience will find more and more in this release with every listen. ... Fantastic!”—JazzNet Denmark
"You guys are the closest thing to jazz that I actually like." - audience member at a Moraine show
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