KISS 2016: Emergence

Presentations on composing and performing with Kyma, sound design using Kyma, and interacting with other controllers and audio equipment.

Recognize some of the recurring patterns that will help you design new live performance environments in Kyma.

Presentations on composing and performing with Kyma, sound design using Kyma, and interacting with other controllers and audio equipment.

NeverEngine Labs is a growing archive of original Kyma Sound Designs, Classes and exclusive content developed by Cristian Vogel and Gustav Scholda extending Kyma 7 into new territories. In one of the four labs we ran in 2015-2016, the Complexity Lab, we focused on one of the most powerful features of Kyma – the composition and construction of dense signal flows using the Replicator and Script algorithms. The allowed us to create custom Classes for the exploration of Swarm synthesis, fractal noise, arrays of objects, replisamplers and much more. Learning how to work with complexity in Kyma, extends the timbral, rhythmic and spatial possibilities of composition and sound design.

A Look into Spectral Analysis without the complicated maths, using nothing more than multiplication and averaging. The magic behind pulling out the partials from the mixed soup of sound, and how It is not an exact science, but subject to taste, opinion and experimentation. Where do those artifacts come from once you give up the safety net of inverse FT.

Curious about what’s new in Kyma? This is an overview of Kyma with an emphasis on newly-added features, suitable for those who’ve never seen Kyma before as well as for Kyma experts who’d like a crash-course on the newest features of Kyma 7.

AMNMA is an audience-driven ritual on a stage made of woven bubble-wrap accompanied by short bursts of sound and a chanting choir triggered by Kyma. It is a modular, site-specifc work. Audience members’ names are entered into a UI, which dissects the phonemes of the names and reconfigures the syllables using a Python program into an abstract poem following the rules of Classical Chinese rhymed verse. The poem is experienced as a chant-like song, from a choir of 10 voices triggered by the python program through Kyma. During the chant, audience members are brought onto the stage to walk on the bubble wrap to the sound of their names.

Meet old friends and make new colleagues!

Featuring pieces by Olga Oseth; Vincenzo Gualtieri; Chi Wang; Scott Miller; and Kiyoung Lee & Ha-Young Park.

This piece is based on the idea of how distinctive natures compliment each other in creation of unique art. Duration of the composition is ca.8 minutes. Sound material contains field recordings of engines and female vocal recording of text. The text is entitled Not intrigued with Evening from Soul of Rumi by Mewalan Jalaluddin Rumi. Big thanks to my friends, who dedicated their time to recording sessions.

Shapes of Each Other is performed using Symbolic Sound’s Kyma, which allows the performer to manipulate sound in real time by interacting with the sound environment using data received from eMotion Technology.

The instrument itself is called ларец- a small chest that stores delicate gems.

This paper presents a composition entitled (BTF)-5 in which interactions between adaptive systems exibit constructive and destructive audio feedback processes. What comes out are sound events and sound emergencies. By the Kyma System have been formalized the systemic conditions to create – in an environment where regimes in audio feedback between surface transducers are already established – a network of circular-recursive-interactions between a digital signal processing system and an acoustic instrumental system. In (BTF)-5 the interaction between performer and micro-environment (the Cajon) are equally taken into account: all systems involved are sensitive to their own and to others inner and external states. Interpreter (using acoustic and electro-acoustic instruments at his/her disposal) and environment, gather digital and analog sets of informations and partly react or offer – according to their own acoustic properties – original sound organizations and listening paths suggestions. Each of them behaves according to his/its own specific systemic properties: from the acoustic ones, up to the peculiar quantity and quality attributes.

灵隐寺 is a Buddha Temple in Hangzhou that I frequently visit. There are nine main buildings, eighteen pavilions and seventy-seven temple halls built on a hill. 灵隐, meaning “pure mind”, 灵隐寺 is the temple to purify the soul. In this piece, the performer interacts with the two contractible strings of the Gametrak controller that move between different states of tension and release to express the emotional journey between the individual and the exposure to the Buddha Recitation.

The Gametrak controller outputs data streams based on the position of the two strings in three-dimensional space. I direct those data streams to control sound-producing algorithms in realtime with the objective of creating an expressive musical performance.

Islands is more about the river than the islands. The river is dynamic, in constant motion, many layered. It responds to the presence of objects–fish, birds, people, islands–and moves, transforms, and shapes these same objects. We can observe its passage and potential, and we can enter and navigate it.

As a metaphor for the composition, the performer enters the river of processing and navigates it sonically, from island to island. The islands emerge from the river, made of the stuff that lies beneath the surface, providing unique environments that are a part of and separate from the river. The performer’s interactions with the river and the islands influence the environment immediately and downriver, which can be understood as the confluence of many independent environments.

This piece is a mixture of musical notation and improvisation within a predetermined structure played by Soundplane, Monome (Grid and Arc), and Keyboard controller. Kyma system acts as a sound synthesizer as well as real-time processor. Thus, all the sounds come from Kyma.

Like a water molecule is formed from highly combustible elements, hydrogen and oxygen, this project is a compound of musical styles of two musicians and hopefully we will experience emergent evolution in the process of making and performing of the piece.

Continue the discussion over dinner with your newly found friends and old acquaintances.

Keynote presentation on the theme “Emergence”.

Exporation of the conference themes.

Discuss the KISS presentations with your fellow attendees over coffee and tea.

Presentations on composing and performing with Kyma, sound design using Kyma, and interacting with other controllers and audio equipment.

This technical presentation provides background on the live performance. The composition presents not only two musician’s musical ideas, but also various technical ideas including sound design, instrument design and techniques.

In KISS2015, I have introduced some instrument designs with controllers. I will focus more on the sound synthesis and how to control these sound using hardware controller. The presentation will be focused on the following topics:

1. The concept of instrument design and playing techniques.

2. Sound synthesis for the instrument.

3. The process of combining two musician’s ideas. How and what we tried to extract the creative result from combining between Kyma and hardware devices such as Soundplane and Monome.

4. Optimization of the Kyma system for the live performance.

I introduce a current project, AMNMA, and build up the layers from conception to creation. To solve certain aesthetic challenges, I had to pull in elements from disparate places: Chinese classical poetry, Zen Buddhist ceremony, psycholinguistics, and of course Kyma. The result is a site-specific performance piece that incorporates the names of audience members to create an abstract poem ‘rhymed’ in Classical Chinese. Audience members walk together in a communal action to this poem on a stage made of bubble wrap, which was constructed following the instructions for sewing a buddhist robe. The poem is triggered live by Kyma from a sample bank of 10 singers, whose voices are clipped and layered using markers to create abstract, short-duration representations of each phoneme. The presentation demonstrates these elements and closes with a discussion of the primary compositional technique, the ‘burst’. A burst is a short-duration compositional structure that uses roughness as its primary aesthetic attribute. Because of the short time window, interesting things become possible compositionally. Using bursts, one is able to disrupt the feeling of a strong linear flow and becomes able to suggest a multi-dimensional temporal reality for music. Music can be presented as a collection of simultaneous potential states that are explored and developed independently. With my presentation, I am also putting out a call to challenge a KISS participant to design a graphic interface for experiencing bursts through augmented / virtual reality.

This presentation will explore interfacing control voltages with the Kyma system, which are used by Kyma to control elements of a musical performance. The various technical challenges which have been overcome will be fully explained, with lessons learnt and solutions presented for the benefit of attendees.

Topics covered within the presentation will include:

• Different technical hurdles overcome in designing a performance interface using DC control voltages interfacing with Kyma.

• An overview of the different options available for control voltage input into the Kyma System.

• The anatomy of a Kyma Sound used for control voltage input and processing.

• Control-voltage scaling within Kyma.

• Generating and processing DC control voltages using the Kyma system.

• Demonstrations of different unique applications for live performance using a hybrid DC voltage controlled Kyma system.

Discuss what you heard in the morning presentations and in the previous night’s concert.

Presentations on composing and performing with Kyma, sound design using Kyma, and interacting with other controllers and audio equipment.

My way of getting emergence is trespassing. I will describe the different categories, which I am using to that purpose. Firstly, within the “machine domain”: trespassing within one system, which in Kyma is a wonderful way of creating surprisingly new aspects of a composing process. Than, combining two systems, Kyma and a analogue modular system: the main system influences the secondary system or is influenced by it. the ongoing translation from one side to the other and back will show, that in the end, there is no main and no secondary system, if the trespassing is well choregraphied.

Secondly, human-machine interaction. I will show with two examples of scores for live interpreters, how I use Kyma on one hand and notation on the other hand, in order to provoke the instrumentalist to trespass in the composers sector, creating this way a complex system of repercussive actions on both sides and pushing the interpreter beyond the proper interpretation of the score.

After a short presentation of his non-euclidean rhythm theory, featuring musical concepts such as timbre, tempering and harmonic functions applied to the sub audio domain, Malcolm Braff will show the Kyma modules he has developed in collaboration with Cristian Vogel and Gustav Scholda. These modules reproduce the processes at work when he is performing his rhythmic concepts live on the piano: TimeIndexPhrasing, TimeIndexModulo, TimeIndexSequencer. Additional Kyma modules will be presented, that have emerged en route: SRSignalQuantizer GCDPulseDivider, GrooveDelay and GrooveVerb. In conclusion, Malcolm will briefly mention further research directions and how he intends to use Kyma for that purpose.

Charlie has created music using Kyma for many years. This journey has been at odds with his academic adventure until relatively recently. A solo mission punctuated by islands of interaction and communication.

Why is this so? What has he discovered?

Why do UK Users pronounce ‘Kyma’ incorrectly whilst Carla educates us each system boot?

Kyma Vs MaxMSP~: Bipolar siblings?

This presentation will attempt to address the issues of collaborative emergence & crossing boundaries; geographical, artistic, economic, technological, and conceptual.

Collaborative partners are often drawn together through a shared passion or ambition, but surely it is the differences in approach not shared that really enrich the creative learning process? (The Sum and the Difference)

Having recently expanded the Kyma provision within the LCM at UWL London, Charlie is now grappling with how exactly to communicate with students in the language of Kyma.

This biographical journey deconstructs the boundaries crossed and the collaborative learning achieved, albeit filtered through the prism of the forum and other non-linear and not necessarily bidirectional routes. Inspired by the Call for Proposals “Crossing temporal (or historical) boundaries”, one or two of the concepts Luigi Russolo proposed will be considered.

Discuss the KISS presentations with your fellow attendees over coffee and tea.

Presentations on composing and performing with Kyma, sound design using Kyma, and interacting with other controllers and audio equipment.

“REUNION2012: A novel interface for sound producing actions through the game of chess – Adaption for Kyma” is a work for electronically modified chessboard, two performers/chess players and the Kyma system.

The idea behind REUNION2012 is to reflect the chess games flow and dynamics through sound by using a chessboard equipped with high reolution hall-effect sensors which register movements on the board, sends the data stream (OSC) to the two performers, which in turn result in various sonic results based on the game itself.

This paper presents a composition entitled (BTF)-5 in which interactions between adaptive systems exibit constructive and destructive audio feedback processes. What comes out are sound events and sound emergencies. By the Kyma System have been formalized the systemic conditions to create – in an environment where regimes in audio feedback between surface transducers are already established – a network of circular-recursive-interactions between a digital signal processing system and an acoustic instrumental system. In (BTF)-5 the interaction between performer and micro-environment (the Cajon) are equally taken into account: all systems involved are sensitive to their own and to others inner and external states. Interpreter (using acoustic and electro-acoustic instruments at his/her disposal) and environment, gather digital and analog sets of informations and partly react or offer – according to their own acoustic properties – original sound organizations and listening paths suggestions. Each of them behaves according to his/its own specific systemic properties: from the acoustic ones, up to the peculiar quantity and quality attributes.

Emergent musical behavior, such as found in ecosystemic music, can provide a flexible formal model for structured improvisations.

Bring your Kyma questions and consult with the experts.

Featuring pieces by Fang Wan; Mark Phillips; Jefferson Goolsby & Mei-ling Lee; Anne La Berge; and Jeffrey Stolet.

Prayer Wheel is a real-time interactive composition for Leap Motion and Kyma. The Leap Motion outputs streams of data to Kyma when the performer performs different hand gestures in an effort to control sound parameters such as frequency, envelope, and timbre.

Sometimes a mood, an opening sound or gesture, simply takes over and derails the original plan for a composition. As I get older, I seem to find myself more willing to just get out of the way of this sort of derailment and simple document it. The title refers to the color and mood conjured up. It has nothing to do with the chess-playing IBM computer, but the live processing of the soloist does make heavy demands of the computational resources available on my Kyma system.

Combining Kyma with video, photo animation, and narrative voice, The Ocean Thief tells the story of a young girl whose beach-written story is stolen by the ocean, and her seagoing adventures as she fights to get it back. Filmed in Oregon (U.S.A.) and blue screen studios, the story explores the plight of the artist’s voice in a sea of voices, using metaphor to examine creativity, ancestry, mortality, and time.

Awaiting the submission of an abstract and biography from the presenter.

Utter maps out the emotional and linguistic complexities of mother/child communication. The intimate setting features Anne La Berge using the Kyma System together with 6 iPads where performer and audience discover each other, exploring Utter’s rich sonic and visual fabric.

It was made collaboratively by Anne La Berge, Isabelle Vigier and Marcel Wierckx and funded by the Creative Industries Funds NL and the Performing Arts Fund NL.

Continue the discussion over dinner with your newly found friends and old acquaintances.

Keynote presentation on the theme “Emergence”.

Kyma’s ability to play complex algorithms in real time creates new musical opportunities for realtime decision-making in improvisational processes, all of which results in the emergence of new musical formats.

Discuss the KISS presentations with your fellow attendees over coffee and tea.

Presentations on composing and performing with Kyma, sound design using Kyma, and interacting with other controllers and audio equipment.

The length of time it has taken to develop this work has the longest breath in my entire oeuvre and it is not finished yet. This somewhat theatrical version consists of a short poetic text, Kyma generated audio, processed flute and images shown on 6 iPads.

I will explain how I worked collaboratively with fellow artists Isabelle Vigier and Marcel Wierckx to build this version of Utter including how I control the Kyma Timeline and the Interactive Slides App using Max and Arduino hardware and the interactive potential between this new App and other software.

I create drone based improvised meditation music using Kyma; the drones use an interaction between polyrhythmic patterns and resampling and reprocessing of improvised melodies. This is an emergent process, where the whole is a far more complex creation than the parts might seem to create.

This talk will cover the live processing techniques and algorithms used in Deep Blue.

Discuss what you heard in the morning presentations and in the previous night’s concert.

Special lectures and performances using the DOME multichannel speaker array.

A short discussion on the performance system architecture (dome spatialization, virtual environment/Kyma /Reaktor/performers, concepts on dynamic, emergent systemic narratives).

The dome concert is a presentation of an anthology of short narratives called “x short stories”. Each of the “short stories” seemingly self-contained and independent, is presented in dynamic improvisational fashion, allowing each story to contribute into the composition of a larger emergent narrative. The aggregated perceived narrative form, is based on common structural and morphological characteristics found in each separate story, providing a loosely coherent narrative experience for the recipient to interpret.

M is an abstract narrative based on physical simulations (particle systems, fluid simulations, swarm dynamics etc) in both sound and visual. A common domain (built as a Kyma Sound) of physical laws and interactions, controls the sound material and processing as well as their visual counterparts and dome spatialization.

This concert investigates the links between morphological and structural components (and their evolution), to emergent symbolic structures important for the semantics of multimedia narrations. Moreover the connection between concrete and abstract forms (e.g. abstract temporal forms to rhythmical, concrete aural and visual forms to abstract).

The Book of Persephone is a trilogy inspired by the myth of Persephone (Abduction), Labyrinth, the Underworld (Caer Droia) and Multiverse (Caer Sidi) as found in Welsh mythology (and others).

Dance of Darkness is an interactive dance inspired by the Japanese Butoh dance theater aesthetics. The stories are inspired by taboo topics and grotesque imagery (sexuality, death etc.).

Discuss the KISS presentations with your fellow attendees over coffee and tea.

Presentations on composing and performing with Kyma, sound design using Kyma, and interacting with other controllers and audio equipment.

A recent collaboration with visual artist Alexandria Haesaker titled THE PHOBIA PROJECT / NEW WORK ON BEAUTY & REPULSION combines fly images printed on stiff paper, cut-out at the size of your open hand, pinned off the wall surface in a museum space, complimented with an audio soundscape with a subtle low frequency presence of spatial dimension akin to how a fly buzzing and landing, then buzzing again, might act in context to this as an audio-visual-art-installation.

Architecturally, the flies disintegrate to a corner in a room, and restructure our perception of the physical surroundings. Their presence will immediately elicit a response of unease, but also… a perverse beauty upon inspection.

As a collaborator I have created an audio counterpoint, considering the encounter a viewer would confront seeing this installed in place an undertow of distorted human voices and other timbres morphing into an unerring buzz that works on the psyche.

As a sound artist Roland Kuit dealt with numerous situations how to create sound expositions. This talk will take you with examples from the past till now.

Karin Schomaker will talk about her work interacting with Roland’s work.

Focusing on the 2016 KISS theme of emergence, this talk presents the processes, challenges, and outcomes of an extended collaboration in the making of The Ocean Thief, a multimedia children’s story in sound and video. Produced using Kyma, photo animation, video, and voice, The Ocean Thief tells the story of a young girl whose beach-written story is stolen by the ocean, and her seagoing adventures as she tries to get it back.

Bring your Kyma questions and consult with the experts.

Featuring pieces by Paul Connolly; Simon Hutchinson; Roland Kuit & Karin Schomaker; Andrea Young, Sara Sinclair Gomez, Micaela Tobin & Sharon Chohi Kim; and Rich O’Donnell, Anna Lum & Casper McElwee.

Reworking of a piece originally performed by an electro-acoustic ensemble for the 2013 Houston Fringe Festival.

Performance will be a “remix” utilizing gestural controllers (Seaboard Rise, monome grid and monome Arc2) repurposing/live mixing source material that was originally used during the three ensemble performances.

“Interesting Decisions,” is a live-performance piece where a player/performer sends data into the Unity3D game engine, which subsequently sends OSC messages to Kyma based on the player/performer’s interactions within the virtual world created in Unity. Kyma then generates the “soundtrack” to the player/performer’s experience in real time.

Video games have become a ubiquitous part of our world. Starting with the first arcade cabinets in 1971, these games have grown to a multi-billion dollar industry, and an enormous part of the US economy. As such, these games have become inextricably linked to the principles of late capitalism and the problems of modernity. Games, consoles, and devices are mass-produced with planned obsolescence and few serviceable parts.

By creating expressive art that implements ideas from games and gaming technology we regain ownership of gaming practices, and video gaming becomes a creative pursuit. Since last summer I have been exploring the possibilities of the Unity3D game engine as a performance and installation platform. Unity3D, a free game engine, has done a great deal in moving forward the democratization of game design, making it much easier for individuals to “home-brew” games, and reclaim video game culture as a means for personal expression.

GRUIS / GRIT is an exploration of polarities in both sound and image of the solid material of stone. Resonances and deflections. Sublimation vs Consolidation. Macro-space vs Micro-space. Roland Kuit explores the effect of impulse responses in connection with the massive material of stone and space. How will the solidified atoms sound?

Karin Schomaker explores space, movement with layers using modular synthesis in image creation.

ILK is an ensemble of female vocalists that specialize in performing experimental vocal music, electronics and performance theatre in Los Angeles. This performance fuses their diverse vocal techniques by merging their outputs into feature tracking algorithms in Kyma.

Narrative of the poem converges with the abstract music and video. Unique experience emerges for everyone.

SMELL

Into June sun I leap
Led by my nose
Cilia waving
500 million strong
undulate and fill
Two fields smaller
Than the nail of my thumb.

Now they snag
The mellow magnolia
Creamy as cells
In the olfactory gang
Seduced
By a lipid rich ooze
Begin the path
To the brain.

Could I sit, sit, sit
Till the moon yowls
Large and yellow
On the line
Between heaven and earth
Till magnolia is volatile
Like turpentine
And I can smell away the bloom.

Anna Lum

Continue the discussion over dinner with your newly found friends and old acquaintances.

Keynote presentation on the theme “Emergence”.

Notions of emergence and becoming are among the most notable fascinations of humans in many cultural and social arenas. Examples of this near obsession abound that illustrate how dependably humans recognize and note emergent entities such as the moon becoming full, a seed becoming a flower, or a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. We also track the journey of humans through the courses of their lives, as we follow an infant becoming a young child, who, in turn, becomes a teenager, who ultimately becomes an adult. The lecture will (1) examine the concepts of emergence and becoming as they relate to matters external to music, (2) discuss notions of musical becoming as they occur in electronic music compositions, and (3) and analyze becoming as it relates to my recent composition for Wacom tablet and Kyma which is specifically predicated on these principles. This composition will be discussed in detail to reveal elements that led to its becoming a piece of music.

Discuss the KISS presentations with your fellow attendees over coffee and tea.

Presentations on composing and performing with Kyma, sound design using Kyma, and interacting with other controllers and audio equipment.

Gemstone Debris is a new trio (Lynn Baker, saxophone, Ravish Momin, drums/computer, and Michael Wittgraf, computer) that formed in August of 2015, funded by a grant from the Arts and Humanities Initiative of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Dakota (USA). The trio has performed in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and Denver, Colorado. Its artistic vision is to create beat-based improvisational music where the technology that each player is using is maximally communicating with that of the other players. The saxophonist uses pedals, the drummer uses Ableton Live and a Nord synthesizer, and Wittgraf uses Kyma 7 with a variety of controllers. All audio signals are routed through Wittgraf’s gear, who has created a multigrid with which he improvises. This proposal is a lecture about the process of creating the multigrid, from initial conversations between members, to first rehearsals, to more brainstorming, to the most recent rehearsals, performances, and beyond.

Applied Kyma instruments and effects in my live performances are almost exclusively based on the SlipStick model. Thereby, SlipStick operates as an engine of sound synthesis. Simultaneously, it induces and influences other forms of synthesis as Frequency Modulation, Physical Modelling and Resynthesis including the combination and influence of one and the other. Subsequently, single sounds are multiplied by the Replicator.

In my workshop I will show some techniques in how to excite SlipStick and how to use SlipStick as an exciter of sound synthesis. Furthermore, I will demonstrate SlipStick synthesis by example sounds and share some modification hints leading to a more lively sound.

“We have fallen into the place

Where everything is music.

The strumming and the flute notes

Rise into the atmosphere,

And even if the whole world’s harp

Should burn up, There will still be hidden instruments playing.”

–Rumi, “The Essential Rumi,” Harper Collins, San Francisco.

The South Indian musical tradition of Carnatic Music is most interesting in the way it has evolved and in the way it functions within the social fabric. Its function is rooted in the musical aspects that constitute its very existence. These four constituents are: raga (melody), tala (rhythm), composition and improvisation. Within said Carnatic musical tradition there is what is known as Harikatha, a form of storytelling that remains vibrant today. It is a musical presentation whereby stories are narrated. The storyteller (accompanied by musicians) interweaves history, music, poetry, mythology, philosophy and contemporary experience to convey the story, moving beyond what is to what may be, and thus drawing the audience ever further inward on a transforming journey.

Our intent is to create a musical experience based on the Harikatha Classical South Indian performance structure. We envision the emergence of numerous possibilities as we consider this construct to be a springboard rather than a limitation. Our piece brings together a narrator, two musicians and a KYMA environment. Just like another member of the ensemble, KYMA provides a configuration loose enough so performers may improvise within and beyond it.

At the center of this piece there are three artists: İlker Işıkyakar (percussion and Kyma), Timuçin Şahin (double neck guitar), and E. Zoe Schutzman (narration). Our ultimate goal is to travel in time, on a journey where creative new forms of an age-old performance discipline emerge through improvisation, sound and story. In this presentation, I explain elements of our workflow and offer up our progress along this journey.

Discuss what you heard in the morning presentations and in the previous night’s concert.

Includes a performance by the Emergent Ensemble and a presentation of the results of the KISS2016 collaboration projects.

Our collaboration is modeled on the Cage-Cunningham design. Following email discussions during this past summer, we finally met in person during the pre-symposium days earlier this week. Our unifying link is the cyclical metaphor of the carousel.

We started with sound sources that resonate with us individually, for whatever reason. Virginie chose sound recordings of percussion, horses, metal and water. Brian chose acoustic double bass and piano sounds that he previously performed, as well as human voice and sea lion utterings that he previously recorded, all source material from earlier compositions. In addition, he adds live voice and electric bass sounds during the performance. Two iPads and an electric bass are used as control interfaces for the real-time Kyma processing spatialized in 8-channels.

This improvised soundscape is designed to cross as many boundaries as possible, in part due to our decision to ignore these boundaries and their enclosed ‘–isms’ from the start. Is this music synthesized, concrète, or live? Is it Old School or avant-garde? Is it innovative? Is it socially relevant? Is it real? We can answer ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ to any and all of these aesthetic questions. This brings us back to John Cage, as we simply accept whatever emerges, embracing the surprise of unexpected sounds and their behaviors in this space, enjoying the resultant soundscape for what it is while it evolves and swirls around us. We hope to create, for a short time, a new sonic world that invites us to view our source sounds from another perspective, and in the process change (in some way) as musicians and as people. Like creating a sand mandala, we dedicate ourselves to the careful construction of this time sculpture, and then we walk away and let the silence reclaim the alternating air pressure waves.

Evolutionary Intelligence explores the possible interactions among human performers and genetic algorithms. Inspired by nature, genetic algorithms explore large search spaces using techniques gleaned from the biological process of evolution. These techniques are characterized by iterative refinement of a working solution using genetic operators such as crossover and mutation.

This piece unfolds in various ways as we hear what the algorithm develops in response to a human performer. The goal is not to evolve to a finished piece, but to enjoy the sonic experience of what the genetic algorithm creates as it moves toward a goal using natural selection. During the performance, this goal may change, and the population may expand or crash as it would when an organism migrates to a small island.

A short performance of music created during the KISS conference by those musicians taking part in the great Emergent Ensemble experiment. Using a mixture of conduction techniques and general musicianship the Kyma-fuelled Ensemble has been put together to explore real-time music-making possibilities.

Discuss the KISS presentations with your fellow attendees over coffee and tea.

Presentations on composing and performing with Kyma, sound design using Kyma, and interacting with other controllers and audio equipment.

1) What is MPE?

2) Linnstrument particulars

3) how to quickly “Linnify” a Sound

4) Some other ideas to try

5) Actually playing it

The solid body electric bass guitar is a commercially built controller, designed to be a direct pitch-based instrument in the rock and jazz genres. However, it can be usurped as a real-time controller that outputs frequency and amplitude data, which can be mapped to a wide variety of Kyma Sounds in several ways, both as audio input and as an abstracted control signal. This presentation demonstrates how the controller’s audio can be mapped to Kyma Sounds using real-time analysis/resynthesis, MemoryWriter (multiple delay & feedback algorithms), CrossFilter, and Ring Modulation. As a separate control signal, the amplitude of the controller is used affect decay time within a HarmonicResonator, frequency of resynthesized bass (both direct and inverse operations), and to open up a ‘curtain’ into another Sound lurking in the silent background.

Awaiting the submission of an abstract and biography from the presenter.

Continue the discussion over dinner with your newly found friends and old acquaintances.

Featuring pieces by Michael Wittgraf, Lynn Baker & Ravish Momin; Knut Kaulke; Richard Eigner & Gustav Scholda; Sarth Calhoun; Cristian Vogel, Gustav Scholda & Malcolm Braff; Julian Zizko & Jaq Gallier.

Awaiting the submission of an abstract and biography from the presenter.

Gemstone Debris, the brainchild of saxophonist Lynn Baker, is an electro-acoustic genre-blurring trio that blends elements of world music, funk, electronic music, and jazz in a unique environment of freedom and expression. Each member has the dual role of creating their own part as well as directly influencing the sound of the other two musicians. This open-ended improvisation in a groove-oriented sonic context creates exciting and surprising musical moments at every turn.

Where do beats begin and where does tonality end? You can find the answer in a forest of steel trees composed of resonant bark during a spectral thunderstorm. The aim of my research project is the merger of melodic and percussion elements resulting into one conglomeration. Drum sets become more tonal without loosing their characteristic noise-like sound.

The ambition is to create entirely new sounds and complex forms driven by beat sequences which can be played via claviature.

In the “Percussion Discussion” live performances everything is flexible. Depending on the context, Eigner and Scholda dress their compositions in different guises: dance tunes can morph into planar-cloudy soundscapes and vice versa. Richard Eigner provides with fine acoustic rhythms and textures, playing his drums with the use of diverse utensils such as bass bows, vibrators or toilet brushes. Gustav Scholda dissects these rhythms expertly whith his bespoke self developed Kyma-algorithms ranging from spectral dismantling and assembling, smearing and detuning overtones to rhythmic loops and structures.

Together they constantly blur the line between acoustic and electronic sounds.

I create drone based improvised meditation music using Kyma; the drones use an interaction between polyrhythmic patterns and resampling and reprocessing of improvised melodies. This is an emergent process, where the whole is a far more complex creation than the parts might seem to create.

Professor Braff and the NeverEngineers take to the stage – prepare to dance to the most warped modulo timeindex funk – straight out of the Rhythmic Computation Lab of the NeverEngine Labs!

Synchronosis is a creative collaboration between internationally acclaimed Californian vocalist Jaq Gallier (London, FFRR, Cherry Red, Buddyhead, Alan Mcgee’s 359 Music) and electronica artist Julian Zizko (I Own You, MEME, Louder City Records)

Both performers interact with each other in real time controlling purpose-built analog performance controllers generating control voltages used by Kyma to control Jaq Galliers’ live vocal resynthesis.