Kin of the Moon is an improvisation-centric, technology-friendly chamber music series incubated in Seattle's rich musical scene. Headed by violist/improviser Heather Bentley, composer/vocalist Kaley Lane Eaton, and flutist/improviser Leanna Keith - Kin of the Moon explores sonic rituals, promotes cross-pollination of genres, emphasizes the communicative power of specific performance locales and celebrates the creativity that multiplies itself through the collaboration of performers and composers. The artists of Kin of the Moon devote their lives to reaching higher vibrational levels through sound creation.
Co-Directors
Musings from the Multiverse
Heather Bentley, violist, violinist, improviser, composer and general collaboration enthusiast, has shared her household with as many as three cats at one time. Also two sons and a wonderful husband.
Heather Bentley
Violist/Improviser
Q: Do you see yourself more as a wave, or a particle?
A: I struggle with this question on a daily basis. In the period immediately preceding coffee, for example, I generally feel like all of the particles in a finely ground and totally extracted pourover. However, prior to that in those liminal moments awaking from the dreamscape, and before any thoughts of returning to physically manifested reality, I experience existence as pure wave. Over the course of the day there is a sense of rebalancing this ratio somewhat like sloshing water to and fro in a basin. What music does for me is get these wave and particle qualities all synced up, because after all, why choose? The universe certainly has not, so why should I?
Q: Would you rather:
A. Be static in time, but move anywhere in space OR
B. Be static in space, but move anywhere in time
A: (answer pending return from current time expedition)
Leanna Keith, fl(a)utist, improviser, collaborator, big fan of hedgehogs. Taiko drummer, aspiring aerialist, regularly devours books about fantasy worlds and video-game sound design.
Leanna Keith
Flutist/Improviser
Q: Do you view being sucked into a black hole as a tragedy or an opportunity?
A: An opportunity, mostly because I would be able to experience the greatest word in the English language. Spaghettification. I only recently found out that this was a real word, but now that I know it exists, I have been trying to find excuses to say it in conversation. For example, "I was sucked into a black hole, and then experienced Spaghettification." For the record, it's defined as: the effect of extreme gravitational pressure on any particle or body of matter, in particular when exposed to the extreme forces of the black hole. Essentially, when a particle draws too close to the source of the powerful gravitational field, it is stretched into long thin shapes, like pasta. Also known as "the noodle effect".
Q: Would you rather:
A. Be static in time, but move anywhere in space OR
B. Be static in space, but move anywhere in time
A: B. As a total sci-fi nerd, I would love to see how technology progresses in the future. I welcome our AI overlords.
Kaley Lane Eaton, composer, sound artist, soprano, lover of elephants, dogs, crows, and orcas. Believes in the sentience of plants. Fuses ancient performance practices with digital technology. Has a DMA and 5 tattoos, in case you were wondering.
Kaley Lane Eaton
Composer/Vocalist
Q: Do you view being sucked into a black hole as a tragedy or an opportunity?
A: An opportunity, definitely. An opportunity to go where no woman has gone before. When I took Astrophysics in college, my professor would describe in graphic detail how one would get ripped apart, little by little, upon reaching the event horizon, but then he somehow never posited that one would die upon being ripped apart completely, and so it followed in my imagination that somehow inside the black hole where the rules of physics are likely reversed, our disembodied body would somehow reassemble itself, or rather the mind wouldn't need complete assembly to function in this place where you could go anywhere in time but only forward in space, towards the singularity. So essentially, it's the ultimate opportunity to entirely dismantle our bodily ego and be one with the cosmic energy (which is dying, I guess, but in this case it seems like there's more to it). One time when I was in an altered state I experienced this. I must have been thinking about Astro 101.
But then, also a tragedy, because if I became disembodied at the event horizon of a black hole and spent millions of lightyears traveling towards the singularity I'd never get to visit the swimming pigs in the bahamas.
Q: Do you see yourself more as a wave or a particle?
A: Doesn't light get to be both?
(extensive) Bio
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Coming together out of a mutual love for improvising sounds, manipulating acoustic waves electronically, and worshiping the stage as a sacred location for transformation through sonic ritual, the three classically trained musicians of Kin of the Moon create a diverse body of work through their varied modes of soundcraft.
Individually, Kaley Lane Eaton (soprano, pianist, improviser, composer, electronics guru, practitioner of banjo and Renaissance lute), Leanna Keith (flutist, taiko drummer, improviser, composer), and Heather Bentley (violist, violinist, erstwhile cellist, improviser, composer) regularly generate new work in Seattle’s fertile creative music scene. Each collaborates with a broad variety of ensembles in the region.
Since KOTM’s inception in 2017, they have presented an ongoing chamber music series sponsored by the Wayward Music Series, where they have premiered eight new works, and collaborated with guest artists/composers Jessi Harvey, Beth Fleenor, choreographer/dancer Karin Stevens, and Chicago-based composer Renee Baker.
KOTM performed their experimental, electroacoustic work “Atmokinesis” as guests of the 2018 Oh My Ears New Music Festival in Phoenix.
They have launched their monthly series of audience-participation works called “KOTM Public Radiation”, where each piece is the result of the collective sounds of all in attendance.
KOTM is the recipient of King County’s prestigious 4Culture grant to commission new works from Seattle composers Neil Welch and Ewa Trebacz in 2019.
The premieres will take place on the Cornish Presents series in February 2019 at the beautiful PONCHO Recital Hall in Seattle’s arts-rich Capitol Hill neighborhood.
Thriving on continuous output of exceedingly high quality, the musicians of KOTM are, at any given time, at work on operas (lily, LUNG, Ishtar, Finding the In Between, Lilith and Eve), albums (Kaley Lane Eaton’s songs, visual album of their collaborative work Atmokinesis, Bathtub Venus with collaborator Steve Layton), creation of group participation rites (Breath Improv, Human Birdsong, Public Radiation) and straight up concert works, including Eaton’s “22” and “Hildegard von Trapp”, Keith’s “Crow”, and Bentley’s “Conventillo” and “Waltz for Three”, all created within a twelve month period.
The 2018/19 season will feature extensive collaboration with the Los Angeles cello/harp duo Strange Interlude, choreographer Karin Stevens Dance and spontaneous poet/dancer Amelia Love Clearheart for the premiere of Eaton’s dance/voice/electronics/instrumental/improvised/composed work LUNG at Erickson Hall in Seattle and a run-out to LA.
Ultra-soprano Emily Thorner, who performs in Summer 2018 with Bang on a Can, will join KOTM in June 2019 for the premiere of Eaton’s new work for soprano, flute, viola, banjo and electronics at the Wayward Music Series.
Each musician tends to the garden of her own improvising voice with regular participation at Seattle’s incubating venues like Spite House, the Royal Room, Stone Way Cafe, Chapel Performance Space and Vermillion. KOTM is infinitely grateful for the nurturing community of adventurous artists in the Seattle creative music scene.
All teaching artists as well, KOTM has a passion for sharing knowledge through education. All three are faculty members of the Cornish College of the Arts.