"I love your recording of 'No One Receiving.' I think it's the best version anyone's ever done of one of my songs." - Brian Eno, August 1991
"It's the groove of the future. It's all electronic, but they're
real players; these women really know what they're doing. This is not
just a bunch of dumb computer heads -- this is a real, live, feeling,
fire-breathing band." - Mickey Hart, KPFA-FM interview, Feb. 1992
"These women are geniuses!" - Richard Hart, KRON-TV (NBC) News,
March 1992
"D'CuCKOO's method of music-making is among the most original and
wide-ranging anywhere in the world." - Jonathan E, BAM Magazine,
May 1992
"The music is hot and engaging." - Michael Rogers, Newsweek, November 1990
"Future anthropologists must consider how D'CuCKOO embodies our dreams...Part
of the charm of seeing D'CuCKOO perform is just watching them. The women
have a sensuous stage presence. All highly adept multi-instrumentalists,
they dance among their unique instruments, trading off in an elaborate
choreography. D'CuCKOO's songwriting has strength to equal their electronic
expertise and musical performance chops...D'CuCKOO is a must-see band."
- Ed Tywoniak, Mondo 2000 Magazine,1991
D'CuCKOO at DisneyWorld, 1994
Techno-hell but all smiles after jamming with herbie hancock...
L to R: Janelle, Bean, Candice, Linda, Jennifer, Terrie, and Kim.
D'CuCKOO's MidiBall in Action at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz
D'CuCKOO's high-energy live performances were multimedia events, accentuated by live video, computer graphics and interaction with the audience. D'CuCKOO shows were innovative and surprising, with interactive "showtoys" such as the famous D'CuCKOO MIDIBALL and RiGBy, an animated, 3-D, computer-generated puppet. RiGBy was generated in real time by a Silicon Graphics Iris Indigo. RiGBy's facial features and position were controlled by Ron Fischer, D'CuCKOO's "digital puppeteer"; RiGBy's voice is an alter-ego of Linda Jacobson, D'CuCKOO's "Virtriloquist" (virtual "ventriloquist"), who riffed from offstage with the band and audience.
With music, you can create a transformational experience, one that draws in the audience as it grooves to the beat of technojuju. By integrating various media, such as our MIDI trigger instruments with real-time computer graphic visuals and digital puppetry, we tried to move the computer closer to the expressions of body and soul. Our challenge was to use these technologies in fresh ways to spark emotions and encourage group interaction.
D'CuCKOO disbanded in 1998 --- several of the bandmembers are now in RhythMix and others can still be found playing music around the Bay Area. Candice is now in Hawaii developing the world's first graphics synthesizer called Studio Artist with John Dalton.
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Lured by the call of the drum, Bean has travelled around the world in pursuit of percussion. A spontaneous trip to West Africa in 1982 metamorphosed into a two-year journey throughout Africa and Asia. Ethnomusicology became her passion as she studied with master drummers and dancers of the Senegalese and Congolese National Ballet Companies. Inspired by their collective spirit, upon her return to the U.S. in 1984, she shared her experiences of music and dance with the Zulu Warriors and the San Francisco Underground Marimba Ensemble, through building acoustic Shona marimbas. With a background in engineering at the University of Michigan, it wasn't long before the acoustic instruments evolved into electronic marimbas and drum triggers. In 1986, Bean she co-founded D'CuCKOO with Candice Pacheco and Patti Clemens. Together, they built the first several rounds of instruments that would become the foundation for this eclectic cybertribal world funk ensemble well-known for building custom MIDI controllers and audience participation devices for live performance. D'CuCKOO, invented digital percussion instruments that accompanied a musical alchemy of layered vocals, rhythms and sampled sounds of multicultural inspiration. We were inspired by the global traditions that encourage everyone to participate in the creation of music. Our goal was to infuse western culture with a participatory approach, using digital technology as the vehicle, and treating our audiences as collaborators in the pursuit of new audio-visual explorations.
RiGBy
and then there were three....
D'Early years....
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