Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith

I'm pretty sure Buchla is the main synth on all of her stuff, but she throws in other synths as well.

I like that Claire hamill record a lot but I sure as fuck had to unfollow her twitter during the brexit vote

also i think she ran as a tory councillor in the last council elections so y'know

some of this KAS album feels like the brightness is turned up way too high but i love some of the less manic stuff - 'an intention' is definitely a favourite atm

also lol at a track being called 'A Kid'

why?

oh i was just amused at the thought of her devising her track titling scheme just so she could make a weak radiohead pun

Short profile from Reynolds - https://www.villagevoice.com/2017/10/13/kaitlyn-aurelia-smith-and-the-secret-life-of-synths/

This FACT video is also great, I didn't check if it's been posted yet - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95UvPlhjbE4

The ascetic aspects of her practice, including everything before working with modular synths and releasing music, is pretty interesting. I guess it's easy to write it off as some hippie stuff, but actually think that's quite a superficial reaction. Seems to me that there's something deeper going on, there's something to her work that endorses a need to withdraw from the social to practice in order to exercise different capacities, to achieve a certain kind of mastery.

I dunno, I'm increasingly interested in these acts of withdrawal and imposing limits after years of internet and social media binging, and now culminating in the perpetual outrage of the alt-right and Trumpocalypse era...

Great video. What a view to work from!

i thought that was a fantastic video. she presents her process in a way that is remarkably straightforward, compared to most musicians, even though what she's doing is insanely abstract on certain levels. i really admire that. she is so cool! i really liked the part about halfway through where she was talking about learning to operate and listen to the oscillators for the first time. i was also pleased that she seems to gel with my high school stoner observation that music biz legends beethoven/mozart/et al would likely be electronic musicians today. unless you're in the very unusual position of having the money and prestige to write compositions for orchestras, it is much more practical to DIY that shit with a synthesizer and get access to over 512 other sounds along the way

it's cheaper to rent an orchestra and orchestra hall than it is to build a buchla synthesizer set-up!

haha, true with the buchla i guess (she acknowledges that it's super expensive somewhere in the video i think)! but in general it's pretty easy to create a permanent setup that lets you create pretty much any kind of noise for very little $

But again, I think it's the process of isolating herself for self-practice that's also interesting - the long process of training and experimentation. Obviously she's some kind of master now, but that came through an effort of cutting herself off from stuff, or striving towards another world rather than what's given...

You could say that about any number of artists obv. Not sure why I'm reflecting on it so much with her work. Very inspiring anyway.

Part of it may be that she seems more open about detailing her process than many electronic musicians.

more detailed than many artists, period. there's a lot to be said about maintaining a sense of mystery but i love it when someone finds it natural to talk about in a straightforward way (even if what the creative process they're trying to describe is not straightforward at all)

New one doesn't have the hooks the last one did, but the last four tracks ... damn. Combining that deep meditative ish with that lightness.

eh imo the hooks are way stronger this time around

i love this album

I really like this, but EARS was a bit stronger. My main complaint is that I could stand slightly less singing and more synth noodling. There are several tracks where her vocals work really well, but using the same harmonizer effect over and over gets a little tiresome.

Looking forward to seeing her perform in London tonight, stoked.

Her sound is wearing off on me. It felt so incredible and new on Euclid; then there were moments on EARS that I really relished. Now it's starting to feel like a cartoon. I am ready for her to take a hard left turn into something different.

i am co-producing her next album, it is a modular synthesis tribute to tom jones

.... jesus christ y'all

that is on her christmas album

Agree with Pgwp: the textures and rhythms on this album sound amazing, but her singing gets tiring after a while, especially since is using the same filter that was on her previous two albums too, but even more. I still like Waves more than the next three albums because that vocal sound is too much, but I wish she'd make an instrumental synth album again, with the same craft and imagination she's managed to put into this one.

Agree with Pgwp and Moodles, I mean.

I like the vocals

tuomas hates vocals shocker

I've nothing against vocals per se, but their range on Smith's last two albums is not that wide, and using the same filter on them without exception is tiring. I'd be saying the same if she was using the same synth sound on every track. And the two instrumental albums she's (co)produced sound great, so it's not like this is her only thing.

Yeah, I would love to see her play live in a more jam context - something along the lines of the Sunergy record with Suzanne Ciani. But that said, the live show was pretty jaw-dropping amazing. Cyborg trance, channelling the cosmos territory with amazing bio-organic visuals. There's definitely hooks and strong melodies, certainly even songs, but this stuff is at times also close to mantras or chanting. And the vocals absolutely worked for the whole show, even more so than the album, I felt.

Four Tet remix of I Will Make Room For You is ace

it's cheaper to rent an orchestra and orchestra hall than it is to build a buchla synthesizer set-up!

This is true!

I was at the Scala show too - pretty astonishing. Has she done one of those "Ableton Live" type videos recently (or ever) where explains the gear she uses on stage and how the sounds are generated?

Hearing all the recent stuff end to end did however betray how samey some of the vocals are (and it doesn't help that a lot of the songs are in the same key). I want her to carry on with lyrics but I think a radical change of direction on the vocal front for the next record is called for.

Played the new one at record club. https://devonrecordclub.com/2017/12/02/kaitlyn-aurelia-smith-a-kid-round-105-nicks-choice/

Were you able to put on another record afterwards?

lol

haha, actually we did play this last I think, although not deliberately because of that!

couldn't find a better thread to post this, but claire was mentioned above

classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOWG03-xnXU

touring and playing Dublin next month!

A new thing.

https://kaitlynaureliasmith.bandcamp.com/album/electronic-series-vol-1-abstractions

I listened to it late last night. It seemed likeable as a long improvisation, maybe not worth $10?

My students mostly seem to think she's crazy for working with Buchla synths instead of a laptop in the 21st century.

Yes, definitely one to stream now and then, rather than buy. The cartoon sounds about two thirds of the way through injected some nice levity.

Listening to it now (and I bought it anyway) -- it's fun!

Not sure if this has been linked already, she has a monthly radio show on nts - https://www.nts.live/shows/kaitlyn-aurelia-smith

sounds nice would be cool if the tape came with some succulents

Radio show starting up now, checking it out.

cool!

Good stuff, pretty eclectic.

She’s so lucky to have inherited a buchla from a neighbour. That’s insane. Also living on orca island - damn

https://crackmagazine.net/2018/08/listen-to-a-new-ambient-track-kaitlyn-aurelia-smith-created-using-field-recordings-from-a-mountain-hike-in-los-angeles/