Listeners familiar with Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s previous album Euclid (an album that prompted Dazed to call her “…one of the most pioneering musicians in the world.”) will no doubt notice her heavier use of vocals on her new album EARS. On all but one song, her gently ecstatic swells of vocals emerge to soar over a dense jungle of synths and woodwinds.

After initially composing on a Buchla analog synth, she wrote arrangements for a woodwind quintet, added vocals, and further refined the pieces with granular synthesis techniques she developed in her sound design work (she contributed sound design to Panda Bear’s “Boys Latin” video, and handled sound design and original compositions for Brasilia co-written by and starring Reggie Watts).

Kinetic arpeggios of synths pulse, often buoying her graceful vocal mantras, while woodwinds breathe and flutter, emulating the wildlife Smith observed while growing up on the West Coast (she even studied recordings of slowed down bird calls prior to composing these pieces). Though some of her gestures echo the musical tropes used by early minimalist composers, the world she creates on EARS is uniquely hypnotic and full of life, not unlike Miyzaki’s film Nausicaä, which she cites as an inspiration.

Pre-Order EARS

iTunes: hyperurl.co/gz5pqt
WV: westernvinyl.com/shop/wv145
Bandcamp: kaitlynaureliasmith.bandcamp.com/album/ears

Artist Page westernvinyl.com/artists/kaitlyn-aurelia-smith
Website kaitlynaureliasmith.com/
Facebook www.facebook.com/kaitlynaurelia/
Twitter twitter.com/kaitlynaurelia
Instagram www.instagram.com/kaitlynaurelia/

TOUR DATES
March 18 – London – Convergence Festival
March 22 – Dublin – Button Factory w/ Battles
March 24 – London – Electric Brixton w/ Battles
March 25 – Paris – La Cigale w/ Battles
March 26 – Reims – La Cartonnerie w/ Battles
March 27 – Brussels – BRDCST Festival
March 29 – Milan – Magazzini Generali w/ Battles
March 30 – Rome – Quirinetta w/ Battles
March 31 – Roncade – New Age Roncade w/ Battles
April 01 – The Hague – Rewire Festival
April 05 – Lausanne – Les Docks w/ Battles
April 06 – Zurich – Rote Fabrik w/ Battles
April 07 – Berlin – Kantine am Berghain
April 12 – Belgrade – Resonate Festival
April 13 – Berlin – Ableton User Group Meeting
April 15 – Linz – Stadtwerkstatt / Kirchengasse 7
April 28 – Fayetteville, AR – George’s Majestic Lounge w/ Animal Collective
April 29 – Austin, TX – Levitation
May 01 – Tulsa, OK – Cains Ballroom w/ Animal Collective
May 03 – St. Louis, MO – Pageant – St Louis, MO w/ Animal Collective
May 04 – Royal Oak, MI – Royal Oak Music Theatre w/ Animal Collective
May 06 – Nashville, TN – Marathon Music Works w/ Animal Collective
May 07 – Atlanta, GA – Buckhead Theatre w/ Animal Collective
May 08 – Asheville, NC – Orange Peel w/ Animal Collective
May 10 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club w/ Animal Collective
May 13 – Wilmington, DE – World Café Live at The Queen w/ Animal Collective
May 14 – Sayreville, NJ – Starland Ballroom – w/ Animal Collective