Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith Let's Turn It Into Sound [ARTPL-178] Japan Music CD

Product Description
Synopsis: "Art inspires awe, art is a mystical expression." "Art is physical, even if it is experienced in the brain; it is felt." At the heart of "Let's Turn It Into Sound," the ninth studio album and second with Ghostly International by West Coast-based composer/artist/producer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, lies a mystery related to perception, expression, and communication. How can we communicate when spoken language is insufficient? How do we understand what we feel? How do we translate our experiences of the world into something that someone else can understand? For her, a self-proclaimed "feeler," the answers are inspired by compound words in languages ??other than English, translation, sculptural fashion, dance, Butoh, martial arts Shaolin, and other forms of sensory and physical experience. Just as fashion uses lines, shapes, colors, textures, and silhouettes to communicate on a sensory level beyond conscious awareness, "Let's Turn It Into Sound" attempts to convey what cannot be expressed through words alone, using sound. "This album is a puzzle, and the song titles are instructions for breaking down and understanding those emotions," she explains. The energetic "Is it Me or is it You?" comes from traversing the gap between how you see yourself and how others see you, filtered through the lens of their own projections. "There is Something" evokes a sense of quiet revelation, like entering a room and unconsciously becoming aware of the dynamic elements present. Meanwhile, Smith interprets these emotions through sound. For three months, Smith recorded alone in her home studio, experimenting with new elements in addition to her usual toolkit of modular, analog, rare synthesizers (including her beloved Buchla), orchestral sounds, and voice. She created new vocal processing techniques and adopted an approach that pursued an intuitively felt pace rather than adhering to typical song structures. She walked around with a subwoofer backpack and an umbrella during the windiest season, listening to the album's low end in 60 mph gusts. She listened to herself, and in doing so, she listened to an inner community that suddenly opened up to her. At the heart of this album is the dynamic relationship between what she calls six different voices, each a multifaceted storyteller. By acknowledging these characters, she came to acknowledge her entire being: the multiplicity of her selves, the complex process of recognizing and resolving inner conflicts, and the joy of finding harmony in fluidity. "I came to feel like I embodied all of these characters. This album was like my inner community wanting to communicate but not having English as a means of communication, so I let it speak, without judgment, just giving it space to play. By not adhering to the expected structure of the songs, each track feels more conversational, and each character can fully express themselves. Kaitlyn has never quite fit into the conversational genre of ambient, but with this album, she explores even further beyond that, traversing avant-garde pop, neoclassical, and other unclassifiable genres." As a result, the playful, inquisitive, and stimulating works appeal to us as social and sensitive animals, drawing the listener into a completely unique world. Stepping through "Let's Turn It Into Sound" is like peeking into a secret realm, allowing you to enjoy both the discovery of magic hidden in everyday life and the lingering sparkle long after the entrance closes. Media reviews and more "Let's Turn It Into Sound" is the second album by West Coast-based composer/artist/producer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith since her move to Ghostly International, and her ninth studio album overall. It features a remarkably leap forward in sound, employing new vocal processing techniques and an approach that pursues an intuitively felt pace rather than adhering to typical song structures, traversing avant-garde pop, neoclassical, and other unclassifiable genres with a dizzying and colorful development that draws the listener into a completely unique world. (C)RS
About the Artist: A producer/composer from Orcas Island, Washington, USA, currently based in LA. Having grown up in a natural environment, she has established her own unique musical style by combining that with the technical sensibilities gained from her studies at Berklee College of Music. Originally a classical guitarist, she formed the indie folk band Ever Isles with multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Harris, who was also a student at Berklee, and released one album. Then, she had a fateful encounter with a Buchla 100, which happened to belong to a neighbor, and became engrossed in modular synthesizers. After two self-produced releases, she signed with Western Vinyl and has released four albums to date. In 2016, she released "Sunergy," a collaboration with Suzanne Ciani, on RVNG Intl. (which won Best New Music from Pitchfork), establishing herself as a prominent artist, and this year she signed with Ghostly International. His talent has been praised by many musicians, and he has been selected as a support act for tours by bands such as Battles, Animal Collective, and Caribou, as well as a remixer for artists like Max Richter, Tycho, and The Field.