Archive
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith launches experimental label Touchtheplants
Touchtheplants is an encouraging multidisciplinary creative environment founded by composer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. The platform grows with and for diverse artists dedicated to the joy of storytelling and exploring the spirit through music and visual arts.
Sharing music, dance, film, poetry, photography, instruments, explorations, experiences, clothing, fortunes, symposiums and more, Touchtheplants is open to all ideas and formats rooted in the intent to encourage and edify infinite possibilities.
Touchtheplants Presents: Electronic Series
The Electronic Series is an annual offering consisting of a musical recording and a short comic about two friends – a plant and a human being – having an existential conversation. Each volume focuses on a different theme and context intended to nourish inquisitiveness.
Electronic Series Vol 1: “Abstractions” Inspired by a collection of works by experimental filmmaker Harry Everett Smith.
Available March 21st on Cassette and Digital.
Coming Soon:
Rob Moss Wilson
Chantal Anderson
Aubrey Trinnaman
Cool Maritime
Tyy WellsKaitlyn Aurelia Smith releases The Kid
Synthesist and composer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith has released The Kid, a sprawling new LP that follow’s last year’s breakthrough album EARS. The album is a sonic representation of four distinct stages of the human lifespan, from birth to self-awareness to the forging of one’s individual identity to old age and death. Working with a wide array of synthesizers, Smith has made an album that is at once personal and universal, sonically engrossing and lush.
Smith has shared “An Intention,” taken from the album’s first act representing a wide-eyed, playful, and exploratory period of life.
STREAM: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – “An Intention”
“Smith focuses on a narrow band of feeling – wonder, curiosity, disorientation, bliss – and constructs a gleaming sonic world to house them, a place where the lines between thoughts and feelings and styles are porous.” – Pitchfork
“Like the work of Hayao Miyazaki, whom Smith admires, her music imagines something mythic or elemental colliding against modernity.” – The Village Voice
“A wholly immersive, mesmeric listen.” – Rolling Stone
“For an artist known for her analog synth wizardry, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith makes music that’s beguilingly organic.” – Nylon
“A novel, naturalistic, and, yes, pop-savvy voice wielding an instrument known for esoteric experimentalism.” – Resident Advisor
Live ::
20/11/17 – Berlin, Germany @ Funkhaus
21/11/17 – London, United Kingdom @ Scala
22/11/17 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Melkweg
In 2017, the musical term “electronic” is nearly obsolete given the ubiquity of computerized processes in producing music. Even so, the prevailing assumption is that musicians working under this broad umbrella must be inspired by concepts equally as electrified as their equipment. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith has demonstrated in her still-blooming discography that this notion couldn’t be further from the truth, and that more often than not, rich worlds of synthesized sound are born from deep reverence of the natural world. Smith (who by no coincidence, cites naturalist David Attenborough as a contemporary muse) has embodied such an appreciation on The Kid in as direct and sincere a way as possible by sonically charting the phases of life itself. The album, which punctually follows up her 2016 breakthrough EARS, chronicles four defining cognitive and emotional stages of the human lifespan across four sides of a double LP.
The first side takes us through the confused astonishment of a newborn, unaware of itself, existing in an unwitting nirvana. Smith’s music has always woven a youthful thread befitting of the aforementioned subject. Here she articulates it in signature fashion on the track “An Intention,” which serves not only as a soaring spire on The Kid, but on her entire output. There is playfulness here, but it’s elevated by an undertone of gravity into something compelling and majestic that is fast becoming Smith’s watermark. The emotional focus of side two is the vital but underreported moment in early youth when we cross the threshold into self awareness. The subject is profound enough to fill an entire album, but rarely makes its way into a single track, indicating Smith’s ambition to broach subtler and deeper subjects than the average composer. This side offers up another highlight in the form of “In The World But Not Of The World” which serves its subject well with epiphanic, climbing strings and decidedly noisy textures over a near-Bollywood low end pulse.
Side three emphasizes a feeling of being confirmed enough in one’s own identity to begin giving back to the formative forces of one’s upbringing, which is arguably the duty that all great artists aim to fulfill. This side ends with the exploratory album cut “Who I Am & Why I Am Where I Am” recorded in a single take without overdubs on the rare EMS Synthi 100 synthesizer. This humble piece of sound design serves as a contrast to side four’s verdant orchestral moments, all written and arranged for the EU-based Stargaze quartet by Smith herself. This final side represents a return to pure being, the kind of wisdom and peace that eludes most of us until the autumn of life. On “To Feel Your Best” this concept is voiced in the bittersweet refrain “one day I’ll wake up and you won’t be there” which Smith intended to be a grateful acknowledgement of life rather than a melancholy resentment of loss. The song has both effects depending on the mood of the listener, and both interpretations are equally moving.
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith belongs to an ilk of modern musicians who are defined by their commitment to creating experiential albums despite the singles-oriented habits of modern listeners, and here she represents her kind proudly. The subjects on The Kid are not simple to convey, and yet through both emotional tone and lyrical content, Smith does just that. There is a similar gravity to both birth and death, and rarely is that correlation as accurately and enthusiastically mapped as it is here.
Alan Watts, another logical inspiration of Smith’s, once expounded that people record themselves to confirm their own existence, and as such, echoes and resonance are reminders that we are alive. “You’re not there unless you’re recorded,” Watts muses, “if you shout, and it doesn’t come back and echo, it didn’t happen.” The Kid speaks to this idea directly. As Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith explores her existence through music, she guides us in gleefully contemplating our own.
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – The Kid
(Western Vinyl – October 6th, 2017)- I Am A Thought
- An Intention
- A Kid
- In The World
- I Am Consumed
- In The World, But Not Of The World
- I Am Learning
- To Follow And Lead
- Until I Remember
- Who I Am And Why I Am Where I Am
- I Am Curious, I Care
- I Will Make Room For You
- To Feel Your Best
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith shares new single, To Feel Your Best
“The most anticipated experimental album of 2017” – Rolling Stone
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith has shared the new song, “To Feel Your Best,” a reflective track that shows the synthesist and composer establishing a transcendent drift that she imbues with pop sensibilities and a nostalgic yearning. Her new album The Kid traces the human life cycle through four distinct phases, and “To Feel Your Best” represents the final stage, a bittersweet goodbye, but also a renewal and a reflection on not only of what is lost but also gained; a rebirth.The Kid has been named one of the most anticipated albums of the fall by Pitchfork and New York Magazine, and praised for Smith’s unique blend of experimental electronics, kinetic energy, and melodic prowess. The album is out October 6th on Western Vinyl, and follows her breakthrough album EARS as well as the collaborative album Sunergy with Suzanne Ciani.
“The modular maestro charts a path from birth to death.” – FACT
“A lovely piece of deeply weird pop music.” – StereogumLIVE
11/20/17 – Berlin, Germany @ Funkhaus
11/21/17 – London, United Kingdom @ Scala
11/22/17 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ MelkwegKaitlyn Aurelia Smith releases new single
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith releases To Follow And Lead, the second single from her hotly-anticipated new album, The Kid, set for release October 6th on Western Vinyl.
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith announces new album + headline tour
Synthesist and composer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith has announced the release of The Kid, a sprawling new album that follow’s last year’s breakthrough album EARS. It will be released October 6th on Western Vinyl. The album is a sonic representation of four distinct stages of the human lifespan, from birth to self-awareness to the forging of one’s individual identity to old age. Working with a wide array of synthesizers, Smith has made an album that is at once personal and universal, sonically engrossing and lush.
Smith has shared “An Intention,” taken from the album’s first act representing a wide-eyed, playful, and exploratory period of life.
In 2017, the musical term “electronic” is nearly obsolete given the ubiquity of computerized processes in producing music. Even so, the prevailing assumption is that musicians working under this broad umbrella must be inspired by concepts equally as electrified as their equipment. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith has demonstrated in her still-blooming discography that this notion couldn’t be further from the truth, and that more often than not, rich worlds of synthesized sound are born from deep reverence of the natural world. Smith (who by no coincidence, cites naturalist David Attenborough as a contemporary muse) has embodied such an appreciation on The Kid in as direct and sincere a way as possible by sonically charting the phases of life itself. The album, which punctually follows up her 2016 breakthrough EARS, chronicles four defining cognitive and emotional stages of the human lifespan across four sides of a double LP.
The first side takes us through the confused astonishment of a newborn, unaware of itself, existing in an unwitting nirvana. Smith’s music has always woven a youthful thread befitting of the aforementioned subject. Here she articulates it in signature fashion on the track “An Intention,” which serves not only as a soaring spire on The Kid, but on her entire output. There is playfulness here, but it’s elevated by an undertone of gravity into something compelling and majestic that is fast becoming Smith’s watermark. The emotional focus of side two is the vital but underreported moment in early youth when we cross the threshold into self awareness. The subject is profound enough to fill an entire album, but rarely makes its way into a single track, indicating Smith’s ambition to broach subtler and deeper subjects than the average composer. This side offers up another highlight in the form of “In The World But Not Of The World” which serves its subject well with epiphanic, climbing strings and decidedly noisy textures over a near-Bollywood low end pulse.
Side three emphasizes a feeling of being confirmed enough in one’s own identity to begin giving back to the formative forces of one’s upbringing, which is arguably the duty that all great artists aim to fulfill. This side ends with the exploratory album cut “Who I Am & Why I Am Where I Am” recorded in a single take without overdubs on the rare EMS Synthi 100 synthesizer. This humble piece of sound design serves as a contrast to side four’s verdant orchestral moments, all written and arranged for the EU-based Stargaze quartet by Smith herself. This final side represents a return to pure being, the kind of wisdom and peace that eludes most of us until the autumn of life. On “To Feel Your Best” this concept is voiced in the bittersweet refrain “one day I’ll wake up and you won’t be there” which Smith intended to be a grateful acknowledgement of life rather than a melancholy resentment of loss. The song has both effects depending on the mood of the listener, and both interpretations are equally moving.
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith belongs to an ilk of modern musicians who are defined by their commitment to creating experiential albums despite the singles-oriented habits of modern listeners, and here she represents her kind proudly. The subjects on The Kid are not simple to convey, and yet through both emotional tone and lyrical content, Smith does just that. There is a similar gravity to both birth and death, and rarely is that correlation as accurately and enthusiastically mapped as it is here.
Alan Watts, another logical inspiration of Smith’s, once expounded that people record themselves to confirm their own existence, and as such, echoes and resonance are reminders that we are alive. “You’re not there unless you’re recorded,” Watts muses, “if you shout, and it doesn’t come back and echo, it didn’t happen.” The Kid speaks to this idea directly. As Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith explores her existence through music, she guides us in gleefully contemplating our own.
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – The Kid
(Western Vinyl – October 7th, 2017)- I Am A Thought
- An Intention
- A Kid
- In The World
- I Am Consumed
- In The World, But Not Of The World
- I Am Learning
- To Follow And Lead
- Until I Remember
- Who I Am And Why I Am Where I Am
- I Am Curious, I Care
- I Will Make Room For You
- To Feel Your Best
Kaitlyn will perform across Europe this summer, following up with headline shows in November ::
11/08/2017 Tøyenparken, Oslo Øyafestivalen (Hi-Fi Klubben) NO
12/08/2017 Helsinki Flow Festival FI
16/08/2017 Stockholm Fasching SE
19/08/2017 Saint Malo La Route Du Rock FR
24/08/2017 Warsaw Plac Zabaw PL
26/08/2017 Gdansk Solidarity Of Arts Festival PL
30/08/2017 Obonjan Obonjan Island HR
31/08/2017 Pula Dimensions HR
20/11/2017 Berlin Funkhaus DE
21/11/2017 London Scala UK
22/11/2017 Amsterdam Melkweg NLKaitlyn Aurelia Smith covers Sade
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith covers Sade’s classic ballad, ‘By Your Side’, taken from her 2000 album, Lovers Rock. The track is made available here as a free download.
About the cover, Kaitlyn says: Lovers Rock was the album I listened to the most when I was 15 and decided to start writing songs. Sade has always been a favorite vocalist of mine – so emotive and honest and true. To me, her voice glides naturally across genders and genres, which is a quality I also work to embody with my vocals. Sade is pure class in my book.
credits
released June 6, 2017
Sade Adu, Kaitlyn Aurelia SmithKaitlyn Aurelia Smith 2016 album accolades
We are immensely proud and excited to share just some of the end of year accolades Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith received for her 2016 album, EARS, and her collaborative album with Suzanne Ciani, Sunergy, also in 2016.
Pitchfork, 50 Best Albums of 2016 #29 EARS
Pitchfork, 20 Best Experimental Albums of 2016 EARS & Sunergy
Pitchfork, 100 Best Song #70 Existence In The Unfurling
Rolling Stone, 20 Best Avant Albums of 2016 #12 EARS
Rolling Stone, 45 Best Albums of 2016 so far, #45 EARS
Redbull, 5 Best Experimental Albums of 2016 #1 EARS
NTS Top 50 albums of 2016, #30 EARS
Resident Advisor, 20 Best Albums #14 EARS
NPR Music, Best 50 Albums of 2016, #30 EARS
Norman Records, Album of the Year, EARS
Crack Magazine, Top 100 Albums of the Year, #94 Sunergy, #10 EARS
FACT, Best Album 2016, #41 Sunergy
The Quietus, Top 100 Albums of the first half of 2016, #36 EARS
Spin, The 50 Best Albums of 2016 so far, #28 EARS
Fractured Air, Albums of the Year 2016, #2 EARS
Double J, The 50 best albums of 2016, #33 EARS
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith shares animated video for Riparian
Analog synth virtuoso Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith has had a major year. Following up her Western Vinyl album EARS, she collaborated with her forbear and Bulcha disciple Suzanne Ciani on their album Sunergy – but EARS is still keeping Smith’s attention.She has now released an endearing video for the unreleased track ‘Riparian’. Directed by Andrew Benson, aka Pixlpa, the clip features the adventures of an anonymous (but adorable!) animated character as he encounters the world around him.
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith announces first Australian shows
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith shares “When I Try, I’m Full” video
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith has shared a new video for “When I Try, I’m Full,” from her recent LP EARS. The spare, cellular animation was hand-drawn by animator Jules Guérin. “An organic cell is born,” he said of the video. “Its birth drives us through a shamanic vision where it will evolve with music, becoming more complex while mineral, organic, and cosmic elements orbit around it to transform it to its final state. This is the source of endless possibilities.”
Read Pitchfork’s “Rising” feature, “Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s Existential Synthesizer Music.”
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith & Suzanne Ciani announce joint album
Sunergy brings together synthesists Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani for the thirteenth installment of FRKWYS, RVNG Intl.’s intergenerational collaboration series. For this edition, a panorama of the Pacific Coast provides the place and head space for a musical appreciation and consideration of a life-giving form vast and volatile with change.
Fortuitously (as is the freaky way), Smith and Ciani were discovered to be neighbors in the small coastal community of Bolinas, California. The two had become close friends, bonding over their experience as woman musicians and, more unusually, their shared passion for the Buchla synthesizer. The music of Sunergy embraces this kinship, with Smith and Ciani respectively performing on the Buchla 200 E and the Buchla Music Easel, two modern configurations of the innovative instrument developed in the ‘60s by Don Buchla.
Sunergy was recorded in the Bolinas home where Ciani has lived for the last twenty-four years. Her living room overlooks the Pacific Ocean from a cliffside perch, creating an idyllic, inspired setting for music making. Setting up their synths side-by-side, Ciani and Smith took turns keeping time and freely improvising for the album sessions. As a complete piece, Sunergy is shaped by slow, pulsing forms and sinuous, melodic sequences that conjure both an oceanic world and the unlimited sound made possible by modular processing.
For her part, Ciani has long been a Buchla voyager. Suzanne proselytized the potential of Don’s synthesizer instruments in the ‘60s and ‘70s, performing her own compositions before introducing synthesized jingles and sound effects to household audiences. Ciani then achieved wide recognition for her debut album Seven Waves, a collection of colorful, classical song-like melodies fluidly working with harmonic textures and sounds of the ocean shore.
Since its 1982 release, Seven Waves has become an important chapter of the ambient canon within which contemporary artists like Smith have developed their own synth syntax. Smith was born just a few years after the appearance of Seven Waves, growing up in Orcas Island, Washington. A place of profound natural beauty, the islands would inform Tides, her first instrumental collection from 2014. Smith composed Tides as an accompaniment for Yoga classes, ultimately freeing her from conventional songwriting into the exploratory, synth-based compositions demonstrated in ecstatic variety on 2016’s Ears.
Despite the serene setting where Sunergy was realized, the album does not romanticize a complete oneness with nature. Smith and Ciani use their collaborative ground to reflect on the unstable forces at play across the Bolinas horizon. Sunergy takes stock of Bolinas in the 21st century, a once-thriving artist’s refuge now vulnerable to real estate pressure extending from affluent San Francisco, and more irreparably, the specter of climate change erasing its many waterfront habitats.
A diametric dynamic is present in Sunergy; a somber meditation amidst the intense cultural and solar forces transforming the landscape, and a hopeful assertion of the surviving creative culture of Bolinas. Far from rehashing the gentle grace of the artists’ seminal works, Sunergy instead seeks to awaken and bear witness, employing the Buchla waveforms to mirror the infinite rhythms of the ocean and our essential relationship to it.
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani’s Sunergy will be released on September 16, 2016 on LP, CD, and digital formats. An accompanying documentary by Sean Hellfritsch will be offered in tandem.
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith announces video for Arthropoda
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith has shared the video for “Arthropoda” from her album EARS. It stars director Melanie Lane, who dances by herself at the cavernous Stapelbäddsparken skate park in Malmö, Sweden.
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith releases album EARS
Composer, performer, and producer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s new album ‘EARS’ is an immersive listening experience in which dizzying swirls of organic and synthesized sounds work together to create a sense of three-dimensional space and propulsion. Dense and carefully crafted, each of the songs on ‘EARS’ unfolds with a fluid elegance, while maintaining a spontaneous energy, and a sprightly sense of discovery.
Much of the album’s warmth and energy stems from Smith’s use of the versatile analog synthesizer, the Buchla Music Easel. According to Smith “Nothing compares to the sound of a Buchla. In my mind a Buchla synthesizer has the most human sound in it. I wanted to show the Easel’s versatility and range of motion within a live set. I also wanted to spend as little time as possible in front of the computer during the creation”.
“Beguiling, kaleidoscopic, spiritual synth visions” 4/5 Mojo
“A special record” 8/10 Uncut
“EARS sees the human, the organic, and the cosmic cast aloft together, spinning and enveloping the world, illustrated as perfect and beautiful” 8/10 Crack Magazine
“A richly mastered convoy of drones of both acoustic and electronic provenance” The Wire
“I absolutely love her work…an incredible tune that runs in excess of 11 minutes, but if you can offer your patience, it’ll reward you handsomely, trust me” Mary Anne Hobbs, BBC 6 MusicKaitlyn Aurelia Smith ‘EARS’
Release Date: 1st April 2016
Label: Western Vinyl
Formats: LP // CD // Digital
Cat No: WV14501. First Flight
02. Wetlands
03. Envelop
04. When I try, I’m Full
05. Rare Things Grow
06. Arthropoda
07. Stratus
08. Existence in the UnfurlingLive:
01/04/2016 Fri NETHERLANDS THE HAGUE Rewire Festival
02/04/2016 Sat NETHERLANDS THE HAGUE Rewire Q&A
04/04/2016 Mon NETHERLANDS AMSTERDAM Muziekgebouw w/ Anna Meredith
05/04/2016 Tue SWITZERLAND LAUSANNE Les Docks w/ Battles
06/04/2016 Wed SWITZERLAND ZURICH Rote Fabrik w/ Battles
07/04/2016 Thu GERMANY BERLIN Kantine am Berghain
12/04/2016 Tue SERBIA BELGRADE Resonate Festival
13/04/2016 Wed GERMANY BERLIN Ableton User Group Meeting
14/04/2016 Thu CZECH REPUBLIC PRAGUE Meet Factory
15/04/2016 Fri AUSTRIA LINZ Stadtwerkstatt / Kirchengasse 7
03/07/2016 Sun UK LONDON LSO St Luke’s for Possibly CollidingKaitlyn 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/earsArtist 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 CollectiveKaitlyn Aurelia Smith announces European album tour
Marking the April 1 release of her album, EARS, on Western Vinyl, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith embarks on her first ever European tour. Kaitlyn will support the mighty Battles, on a number of European dates, and will also feature at festivals including Convergence, BRDCST, Rewire and Resonate.
Check out the single, Arthropoda, from the forthcoming album, EARS.
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith releases album teaser + single
Ahead of her support set on Animal Collective’s upcoming tour, the Washington experimental electronic artist debuts her new single.
You might not be super familiar with Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s name but you might’ve heard her sound design work in the outro of Panda Bear’s “Boys Latin” video. Over the past two years, the Washington native has released two albums of ambient electronic music on Western Vinyl and is now gearing up to put out her third, titled EARS. Standout single “Arthopoda” is like an enchanting maze: Smith uses a Buchla synthesizer to create an amazing array of electronic sounds that conjure up forest-like imagery for her voice to get lost in.
“In recording EARS, my intention was to take audiences on a sonic motion ride through a futuristic jungle,” Smith told The FADER over email. “I am inspired by the works of Moebius and Miyazaki—in particular the film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind—I wanted to play with visceral sounds that pull one between feelings of beauty and dissonance, chaos and order. My hope is that, on a straight-through listen, in a darkened room, on a loud stereo, EARS will inspire a rich visual narrative in listeners’ minds.”
Western Vinyl will release EARS on April 1, 2016.
Read the full The Fader article By SHAELYNE MOODIE here
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith pays tribute to ’70s musician Bobby Brown
Adding on to their already-busy fall release schedule, the folks at RVNG Intl. have announced The Enlightening Beam of Bobby Brown. A one-man new age orchestra (and not an R&B singer…), Bobby Brown self-released the storied The Enlightening Beam of Axonda in 1972, briefly flirted with greater success, put out some more music, fell into obscurity, and—as the story goes these days—was rediscovered by skilled crate diggers. Not long ago, RVNG’s Matt Werth met with Brown at the Berkeley Art Museum, which coincided with Bay Area producers Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Austin Cesear crafting sonic interpretations of Brown’s deceptively complex work. Smith’s contribution starts droning and chiming, sifting through its own sonic surroundings, making subtle use of numerous textures as Brown often does. Halfway through she introduces brisk, gurgling arpeggios, like Riley underwater, that suggest she’d make a good double bill with Bitchin Bajas.
The Enlightening Beam of Bobby Brown is out now on RVNG Intl. as a cassette-and-zine collection.
Re-posted from : http://adhoc.fm/post/rvng-intl-kaitlyn-aurelia-smith-and-austin-cesear-/
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith scores Reggie Watts’ short film, Brasilia
Directed by
Benjamin DickinsonMusic by
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith