PROJECTS
Photo by Cristina Marx / Photomusix
Steve Marquette - Solo
Steve Marquette is a guitarist, improviser and organizer based out of Chicago, IL. Over the past decade he has become an integral part of the city's storied and vibrant improvised music community, in ensembles of his own (The Few with Macie Stewart and Charlie Kirchen, Kobra Quartet, Instigation Orchestra) and as a member of Ken Vandermark's Marker among other projects. In addition to his work as a musician, he is also a founder and lead organizer of the Instigation Festival - which brings together music, movement and video artists from Chicago and New Orleans for a week of interdisciplinary collaboration in each city.
Using both acoustic and electric guitars, Marquette's solo music explores the intersections between free improvisation, folk traditions and the guitar as "sound box".
The Few
The Few brings together three of the most dynamic string players from the latest generation of Chicago's storied improvised music community - Macie Stewart (violin / voice), Charlie Kirchen (bass), Steve Marquette (guitar) - forming an improvising, acoustic trio that seamlessly blends their wide ranging influences into a singular whole.
Photo by Ricardo Adame
Kobra Quartet
The Kobra Club brings together four engines of the Chicago and New Orleans improvised music communities in an ensemble that forges a path as distinct as its’ members. Drawing from their respective cities rich contributions to improvisation,
The quartet began as an offshoot of the Instigation Festival - the week long event that brings together Chicago / New Orleans music, movement and visual artists for interdisciplinary collaboration - as a way to explore those connections on a smaller scale through free improvisation. Now, after touring the US and releasing their debut recording on Astral Spirits, the Kobra’s shift their focus to Marquette’s compositions - material that balances sonic abstraction, squalling noise and deconstructed languages with their love of groove methodologies from around the world.
“…their set perhaps showcased the goals of the Instigation Festival best, a true combination of current aesthetics being developed on the contemporary improvised music scenes in Chicago and New Orleans).” - Ken Vandermark, February 25th 2019
“…they are the hypnotizing entity roiling through your mind’s eye as their dramatic interplay breathes like reptile skin…a cold-blooded monarch with mischief on its mind.” - Ryan Masteller, Tabsout, September 27th 2019
“Their music may build on past examples, but it’s definitely of its moment. Marquette’s resonant feedback and Anton Hatwich’s droning double bass bridge the electro-acoustic divide, and Paul Thibodeaux’s elastic beats suggest internal reverie more than second-line grooves. But it’s Aurora Nealand’s electronically processed singing and glassy tendrils of accordion that center this music within an otherworldly zone, albeit one where it’s still possible to stumble out of a late-night party in a black hole and find yourself blinking in the middle of a street party.” - Bill Meyer, Dusted ,December 12th, 2019
Instigation Festival
The Instigation Festival brings Chicago & New Orleans music, movement and visual artists together for a week of improvised and interesting interdisciplinary collaboration in each city. Since its founding in 2016 by guitarist Steve Marquette and movement artist Marie Casimir, they have presented over seventy artists at twenty venues across seven festivals. Now entering its fifth year, the Instigation Festival continues its’ work of fostering connections between these cities’ creative arts communities, while expanding the scope to include performers from the Netherlands and Haiti. The 2021 festival will beheld September 16th-19th in Chicago and February 7th-11th 2022 in New Orleans.
Photo by Marc PoKempner
Photo by Marc PoKempner
Photo by Marc PoKempner
Photo by Julia Dratel
Marker
Marker is Ken Vandermark's newest ensemble as a leader and includes Andrew Clinkman and Steve Marquette on guitar, Macie Stewart on violin & keyboard, Phil Sudderberg on drums, along with Vandermark's work on tenor & baritone sax, Bb & bass clarinet. Continuing his interest in creating new compositional forms for improvised music, Vandermark has devised a performance system that not only employs variable order through collage, but has added superimposition to the structuring of material to enable another layer of possibility for the construction of the pieces. The music of Marker is deeply inspired by Bernie Worrell's keyboard work with Parliament Funkadelic and Talking Heads, contemporary classical music, the guitar work of post-punk groups like Wire and The Ex, and groove methodologies from Brazil, Afro-Beat, and funk. After a series of concerts in the summer and early autumn of 2017, featuring a residency at the Sugar Maple in Milwaukee and a new soundtrack performed to Chris Marker's film, "La Jetée," the band took its music on the road for the first time in late January, performing at the Instigation Festival in New Orleans before continuing with a series of concerts for audiences in the Southeast of the United States. Audiographic Records released the first album by Marker in December of 2018, entitled "Wired For Sound" (AGR-013), which is a testament to the power of collective thinking in the development of ideas, and captures a dramatic series of creative musical breakthroughs for all involved. In July of 2018 the band released a limited edition, three CD album, Roadwork 1/Roadwork 2/Homework 1, and toured throughout the Midwest to prepare new music for their third album, a double CD called New Industries, which was recorded in Chicago at the Experimental Sound Studio at the end of their July trip and also includes a live album from their show in Milwaukee during that tour. New Industries was released in conjunction with Marker's first tour in Europe, that took place during the second half of March 2019.