KymaWorks

RICHARD: In 2005 I began my study of the Kyma System - a hardware DSP box and software to program it - which lets you create and modify sounds in amazing and beautiful ways, but which has a fairly steep learning curve. On this page, I'll document my ongoing journey with this wonderful new instrument.

My very first work for Kyma is "One Word", and this recording is from its world premiere at Re:Soundings on May 7, 2005. In this piece, I use external MIDI faders to control the harmonics of a just-tuned chord generated by the Kyma in realtime. The Kyma's output is further modified by DSP processes running on the PowerBook. This recording starts and ends very slowly and quietly, so please be patient while listening.

This version of "One Word" was recorded at New York University's Frederick Loewe Theater on June 7, 2005. The concert, entitled "NYU People, Friends, and Laptops," was a performance of music with laptops, composed, performed, and improvised by a group of musicians associated in different ways with the NYU Music Technology program, among them Dinu Ghezzo, Tom Beyer, Robert Rowe, Langdon Crawford, Benjamin Chadabe, and Steven Miller, and myself. This concert was an event in Hip Chips, the Electronic Music Foundation's worldwide laptop festival.

In this recording, you'll hear Langdon Crawford on Theremin controller, Ben Chadabe on percussion, and myself on PowerBook and Kyma. We chose to play continuously, starting with Lang and Ben's improvisation. At about 4 minutes, Lang leaves the stage, and I come on to perform "Interplay" with Ben, processing his bowed cymbals with the PowerBook to extend and mutate his exotic metal timbres. At about 11 minutes, Ben leaves the stage, and I continue on with "One Word" for another 10 minutes.

The latest Kyma process I've discovered is Pete Johnston's lovely CrossFilter. These four realtime studies, ranging from one to four minutes, are variations on the same CrossFilter patch for a new lap steel and Kyma piece called "Cranes Fly West".

Note: Cranes Fly West has had a long life after these realtime studies. The piece was planned as the title work for an ExOvo CD release in 2010 which unfortunately did not happen. Richard later released Cranes Fly West 2 on O-Town Media CD 'Richard Lainhart Meditations' in August 2011. ExOvo did release 'Cranes Fly West - Schiphorst Edition' in 2010 to coincide with Richard's performances at Jean-Hervé Peron's AvantGuard Festival in Germany. That disc is available in Bandcamp under the ExOvo label.

MUSIC:  Early Works │ Walking Slowly Backwards │ ROMworks │ Five Nocturnes │ WDFH August 25, 2005 │ KymaWorks │ BuchlaWorks