Plugging Into the Jam: Mikroknytes

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D.C. EXPATRIATES JOHN COURSEY AND DEREK MORTON weren't always Mikroknytes. Both were once local rockers performing on the margins of the District's diverse music scene.

But Morton, who now resides in Queens, N.Y., was always experimenting with sound effect pedals and digging the latest developments in computer music software. It wasn't long before his guitar seemed like so much dead weight.

Coursey, who was looking to expand his chops on the violin, found the perfect collaborator in Morton, who also just happened to have the perfect practice space — a bungalow on N. Kansas Street in Arlington, which remains amid rising condos and is still known to sequester transient indie types.

"We played a number of shows around town with varying success," says Coursey, now of Philadelphia. "It wasn't until we took advantage of some free studio time that Derek had accrued back in '98 that we got more serious as a duo."

The pair's sound evolved quickly from spaced-out, violin/Casiotone drone-work initially to more conceptual expression, often performed in collaboration with other artists, including modern dancers and overseas musicians through the use of Web-integrated, "cross-continental audio/video" technology.

"We're on the far end of the live electronic spectrum — there's no pre-programming or sequences," Morton says of his ever-increasing array of gadgetry. "We've remixed ourselves live and jammed with it, but otherwise we use the computer like any other instrument."

Mikroknytes' improvisational music is most always in motion even though it's not really rhythm-based. "The rhythms are mostly incidental," says Morton. "The ones that happen on our new record come up and sweep out, but they're not the backbone of a track." Glitches also occur, he says. "A lot of mistakes end up on our recordings, but we keep them because they end up sounding fresh."

Mikroknytes' new release, "Dekakille," on Morton's homespun label Kavekavity, is two years in the making — somewhat due to living in different cities, although they regularly send tracks to each other over the Internet.

The new album also documents 10 years of working together. "Ten years is a feat for any obscure indie outfit," Morton says. But Coursey equivocates: "People have actually stopped me on the street and said, 'Hey, Mikroknytes!'"

» Velvet Lounge, 915 U St. NW; with Symbol, Talk Normal, Beeping Sleauty, Sat., 9 p.m., $8; 202-462-3213.(U St.-Cardozo)

Written by Express contributor Johnathan Rickman
Photo by Lars Knudsen