JAW-DROPPING HARMONY // Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - Existence In The Unfurling // Composer Reaction

[@jackdearman5880]

Probably my favorite musical composition of the last, say, 25 years. Smith's ability to meld the electronic and the organic until you can't tell the difference (this album has an exceptional woodwind section!) tickles my ears in the best way.

[@johnseward2934]

The forerather to this kind of track and sonic exploration of what synth combined with physical instrumentation is capable of, is Terry Rileys "A Rainbow in Curved Air". Hopefully I can get that track on your channel this year.

[@rudymeixell3426]

That was a thought-provoking reaction. I have never really clicked with any of the Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith music I have listened to, but I am not surprised there is so much going on technically. I think appreciation of it might require an effort I am not ready to make.

[@liliIiliIilil]

She's a good one. Really a big fan of this style of experimental electronica. Very early Oneohtrix Point Never.. Check out Holly Herndon sometime, too.

[@YtuserSumone-rl6sw]

A good entry. This is developing music to do something new. Feels fresh and authentic expression despite it being so computerized. I hope the rest of their material is as good as this.

[@Warp_Head]

It's using modular synthesizers, employing generative and other patching techniques. I really love her music and her musical language, but the technical side of it is not all that mystical or complex once you have some experience with playing modular synths.

[@YtuserSumone-rl6sw]

@Warp_Head Kind of like the computer version of The Hang. Literally anyone can do it without any training.

[@Warp_Head]

@@YtuserSumone-rl6sw Eh, setting the harmonic and melodic framework definitely takes knowledge, skill and work, if you want to be at all deterministic about it. Plenty of supposed modular 'musicians' on KZbin just turning knobs and feeding random/chaos generators into quantizers while subtly acting as if they have any clue what they're actually doing. Making it all fit a more determinstic harmonic or even diatonic structure, and imposing an actual framework on what is otherwise just modular mayhem is not all that easy. Most modular music is boring and superficial beyond belief, appearing deep or difficult while actually being as meaningful or profound as a puddle. Kaithlyn's actually has substance and personality, and evinces actual artistry. Not an easy feat. She could be banging pots and pans for all I care. The music is what counts, not the tools.

[@johnseward2934]

I have no idea why but every time I comment on this video over the last several days....the comment never stays in the comment section, just disappears the next time I check the video....lets see if I can edit it into this comment: Finally!! I've been trying to get this onto your channel for years now lol. I'm glad this has intrigued you so much, even after 9 years of listening to this track, it still takes me away and I haven't found anything else quite like it. I don't have the technical background you do so I've never approached it from your perspective, but your discussion about the approach to harmony it uses was fascinating, especially the way its constantly changing between pitch and tonality to avoid dissonance. When I think about vibrato, and maybe its because I'm not musically trained, it makes me think of a soundwave, just at a different scale and I don't mean musical scale. A note pitch we hear is a sine wave with a certain wavelength and amplitude...and a vibrato is the same thing just at a larger size and over a longer length of time than what our ears interpret as a pitch. Its like why when we hear bird song, it often sounds like a single note, but if you slow it down it has a vibrato. Or take a whale sound and speed it up and you get the same thing. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the song plays with the very structure of sound by being polyscalar, and extremely densely harmonic and constantly evolving and just the most incredibly exploration of chaos that isn't chaotic and balance that isn't balanced. That's the lived experience of existence for you....as it unfurls.

[@CriticalReactions]

Excellent description of exploring chaos without being chaotic.

[@Horseheadbookendz]

It’s as if Lori Anderson joined Tangerine Dream in some near parallel universe