Mary Susan Littlepage

I met Kate Simko a few years back at a birthday party at Gold Star, near Wood and Division. Later that night our cars both got towed from a snow-route zone to the dreaded auto pound, but Simko's calm demeanor kept me from feeling stressed as we waited in the slow-moving auto-pound line.

Classically trained pianist Simko translates her soothing character into dainty-sweet, polished, emotional-sounding ambient techno music. Her group Detalles consists of Simko, who now lives in Ukrainian Village, and Andres Bucci, who lives in Chile. She'll be playing Detalles' soothing, gently pumping techno music, as well as new, more uptempo material and also her own solo work via a laptop computer, a MIDI controller and possibly a keyboard this week at Smart Bar when she opens for Berlin techno darling Ellen Allien.

Between nibbles of pesto-covered quesadillas at Wicker Park's Earwax Café, Simko talks about her music background, the city's techno scene and her upcoming music releases.

Since Simko is a skilled keyboardist, she created all of the melodic elements when she and Bucci collaborated, but Bucci usually created the beats. Their collaborations as Detalles were released as "Shapes of Summer," on the Cologne, Germany, Traum record label. And now they are negotiating a record deal to release ten new faster-paced songs, which they recorded when Simko stayed in Chile for a couple of months earlier this year.

Talking about the music-making process, Simko says, "Nothing is random. When I make music, I feel like I can kind of actualize what I want to happen." She likes to create moods, particularly relaxing ones, in her music. "Music, ever since I was a kid, has always been my release, my outlet, my place to relax," she says.

Simko began taking piano lessons when she was five years old. After studying classical piano, she transferred into the Music Technology program at Northwestern. She earned respect as the Streetbeat director of WNUR electronic-music radio shows. While at Northwestern, she spent nine months studying in Chile. There she met Bucci after she bought a used keyboard from Bucci's brother Pier, who played a CD of her music for Andres.

Andres Bucci and Simko have performed together but only in Chile and Argentina.

Although Simko, who grew up in suburban Chicago, says she enjoyed the slow-paced, sunny environment in Chile, she also likes calling Chicago home. "Chicago has a strong underground music community," she says. "There are a lot of great shows that come through Chicago." She also gives kudos to Sonotheque for hosting new techno events and to subsystence.net, a Chicago-based, music-friendly online magazine/blog.

After Simko graduated from Northwestern, she spent ten months in Los Angeles. While she was there, Los Angeles-based producer John Tejada mastered "Shapes of Summer." Tejada also played at a WNUR party at Zentra when Simko was Streetbeat director, and Simko says the two remain friends.

As for influences and inspiration, Simko says she is drawn to music of soulful, groovy artists, such as Bill Withers and Roy Ayers; jazz artists John and Alice Coltrane; and classical artists Bartok and Erik Satie. In fact, she dedicated the song "Melancholie Satie" to Satie.

At her home studio Simko is busy working on a solo album, which she hopes to release sometime next year. She got a drum machine a couple of weeks ago, and she is eager to incorporate "interesting sound recordings," such as wind chimes, leaves falling, clinking glasses and dripping water.

Besides working on new solo material and with Bucci, Simko recently remixed a song for Philip Glass and a song for former Chicagoan Rebecca Gates. The remixes will be released next year on Glass' label, Orange Mountain Music, and Badman.

When Simko returned to Chicago from Los Angeles a while back, she carefully picked a neighborhood where she thought she would feel calm, and Ukrainian Village has turned out to be just that place.

"If I feel centered and balanced, then I'm in a much better place to make music that other people can connect with," she says.

Kate Simko opens for Ellen Allien at Smart Bar, 3730 North Clark, (773)549-0203, on November 18.

(2004-11-17)

Also by Mary Susan Littlepage

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The game is called "High Strike," and a sign in Union Park reads, "Give us two minutes a month. We'll give you a better world."
(2002-06-20)

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