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  • Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith premieres Existence In The Unfurling

    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