There’s often a whiff of joss sticks surrounding the music of Los Angeles-based composer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. In the past she has made an LP of drones for yoga and meditation, a new age album that was premiered on the Calm app, and she’s even written a pocketbook called Listening (complete with cards featuring “listening exercises”).
But Smith is also a leading figure in modular synthesis. She studied composition and sound engineering at Berklee College of Music, falling under the spell of Steve Reich, and later acquired an enormous Buchla synthesiser, using it to make several solo albums of burbling electronica. She has also made a synth-pop concept album about the life cycle, recorded a duet with her mentor Suzanne Ciani and another collaboration with Hollywood composer Emile Mosseri.
