We seem to be sitting still,
but we're actually moving, and the fantasies
of phenomena are sliding through us
like ideas through curtains.
They go to the well
of deep love inside each of us.
They fill their jars there, and they leave.
There is a source they came from,
and a fountain inside here.
Be generous.
Be grateful. Confess when you're not.
We can't know
what the divine intelligence
has in mind!
Who am I,
standing in the midst of this
thought-traffic?
(Rumi)
Kotorbay studied performance and electro-acoustic composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and City University in London. At that time, immersed in the underground club scene of '90's London, she also worked at the legendary Blue Note in Hoxton Square absorbing the cutting edge styles of Metalheadz, Aba-Shanti-I and Ninja Tunes into her bones. Kotorbay joined the London Musicians Collective and collaborated with a fellow City composer to found 'Thunderbolt'. Thunderbolt won funding from the National Lottery, the PRS Foundation and Sony for their work performing live improvisations around London using a mix of found sounds, sound recordings, machines, flutes, electronics and percussive instruments picked up on their worldly travels. Thunderbolt's radio shows about sound healing and music from other cultures were featured on Resonance FM and their sound-art installations were exhibited at Tate Britain, St Pancras Chambers and Whitechapel Art Gallery among others. Kotorbay also spent a year living in rural Japan, which had a massive influence on her musical life, and joined the amazing Hiroshima-city based music collective Sleepy Eye (3pi), playing flute and synth over their heavy break-beat bass and drums.
After London and Japan, kotorbay moved to NYC and collaborated with Japanese musicians Joyful Sonic Wash, performing live improvisations for dancers and artists in all 5 boroughs, and composing original soundtracks for designers including Vera Wang and Gary Graham. Now based in the UK, kotorbay continues to revere nature and the local sound environment, always wondering how it might combine with the digital darkness of machines to create genre-free soundtracks that transport the listener into a dreamlike parallel world.
Stop. Close your eyes. And listen.