Yannis X 3

Composer Yannis Kyriakides’ “The Trojan Light” for ensemble and live Kyma electronics will be premiered by musikFabrik at the Muziekgebouw on Thursday the 17th of February 2011 at 20:15.

Yannis Kyriakides‘ The Trojan Light will be premiered by ensemble musikFabrik in the Muziekgebouw on Thursday the 17th of February 2011 at 20:15.  The Trojan Light, a new 45-minute piece for ensemble and  both fixed and live Kyma electronics, will share the program with two other pieces by composers named Yannis (but with alternate spellings): Kassandra by Iannis Xenakis and the cult performance piece, Anaparastasis III: The Pianist by Jani Christo.  Full program and ticket information.

Manda no Sahou

Composer Jeffrey Stolet’s new composition for bass/baritone Nicholas Isherwood and Kyma: Manda no Sahou will be premiered February 16, 2011 at CCRMA (Stanford).

Composer Jeffrey Stolet has just finished a new work for bass/baritone Nicholas Isherwood and Kyma: Manda no Sahou.  Manda is the name of a character played by actor Riki Takeuchi in a series of Japanese films.  Despite the fact that he is a mafioso and a loan shark, Manda lives by his own ethical code, championing the little guy and letting the real Yakuza (bad guys) have it.


Stolet uses lines from the films to evoke a cool Clint-Eastwood-meets-Buddha type vibe over menacing,  Kyma-granulated samples of Isherwood singing his basest of bass notes.  The premier is set for February 16 2011 at CCRMA (Stanford) after which Isherwood will incorporate the piece into his European concert tour.

Soundcloud group & Vimeo channel for Kyma creations

Curious to see and hear what kinds of sounds people have been creating with Kyma? Ben Phenix has recently set up a new Soundcloud group and Vimeo channel for that very purpose!

Curious to see and hear what kinds of sounds people have been creating with Kyma?  Ben Phenix has recently set up a new Soundcloud group and Vimeo channel for that very purpose!

In the Kyma Soundcloud, you’ll hear sounds as wide-ranging and unique as the individuals comprising the Kyma community!

And on the Kyma Vimeo Channel you’ll see excerpts of films featuring Kyma sound design, live computer music performances, unusual Kyma controllers, and computer-generated video with Kyma sound tracks, and more!

Kyma featured in Post magazine’s “Audio Innovations”

Kyma is featured in the February 2011 issue of Post Magazine in Ron DiCesare’s article, “Audio Innovations: These companies prove you don’t have to be large to have a big impact”.

Kyma is featured in the February 2011 issue of Post Magazine in Ron DiCesare‘s article, Audio Innovations, an article that focuses on some of the innovators and risk-takers who are reshaping the audio industry.  In an interview with Carla Scaletti, DiCesare describes Kyma’s unique position in audio post production, emphasizing Kyma’s capabilities, the ease with which it can be hooked up to unusual control devices, and Symbolic Sound’s close interaction with customers.

Kyma defies conventional description, but some may call it a sound supercomputer or a sound designer’s dream come true…The hardware component, called the Pacarana, combined with the powerful software makes Kyma a truly innovative approach to sound.

Kyma Seminars at Brandeis

Carla Scaletti will be at Brandeis University on February 3rd and 4th 2011, presenting seminars on Kyma and working with composition students of Eric Chasalow, professor of music and director of the Brandeis Electro-Acoustic Music Studio (BEAMS).

Carla Scaletti will be at Brandeis University on February 3rd and 4th 2011, presenting seminars on Kyma and working with composition students of Eric Chasalow, professor of music and director of the Brandeis Electro-Acoustic Music Studio (BEAMS).



UPDATE 1 February 2011: Chicago to Boston flights have been cancelled for the next couple of days for some reason…  The seminar will take place via iChat from Champaign instead.

FM Slide-whistle

Jean-Edouard Miclot’s “Field and Toys 2010” is an entertaining and enlightening video starring the sound designer in a variety of intriguing, and often amusing, sound-recording scenes. At around 4.40 you can see Jean-Edouard controlling Kyma with the audio output of a slide whistle and a Wacom Tablet.

Field and Toys 2010 is an entertaining and enlightening video starring sound designer Jean-Edouard Miclot in a variety of intriguing, and often amusing, sound-recording scenes.  With sound sources ranging from wolves to whoopee cushions, from commuter trains to exploding condoms and shaky springs to seaplanes (not to mention several mysterious sound-producing toys), this video is chock full of ideas for sound design sources.  And at around 4.40 you can see Jean-Edouard taking it a step further by controlling a Kyma frequency modulation Sound with the audio output of a slide whistle and a Wacom Tablet.

Alchemist’s Crucible of Sound Design

Composer Scott Miller’s studio is featured in Minnesota Public Radio’s State of the Arts blog in which Miller describes the Paca as the “alchemist’s crucible of sound design”.

Minnesota Public Radio is featuring a photo of composer Scott Miller‘s studio in their State of the Arts blog. Marianne Combs asked her ‘art hounds’ to go under cover and send behind the scenes photos of where the magic happens.  When asked about the mysterious little black box to the left of his monitor, Miller responded:

In terms of the magic that happens in my studio, it is the alchemist’s crucible of sound design and interactive music programming, the digital signal processor that runs Kyma software.

Longing for a KISS?

Ben Phenix has posted an online survey to gauge the preferred location for future (after 2012) Kyma International Sound Symposium events.

Have you ever been curious about attending a Kyma International Sound Symposium?  Ben Phenix has posted a survey to gauge interest in various cities as potential future KISS locations.  If you’d like to attend a symposium, now is your chance to register your preferences as to the location!  The survey will be active through the end of February 2011.

Kyma at SEAMUS2011

The SEAMUS2011 conference in Miami Florida January 20-22, 2011 will include several performances and paper presentations by Kyma users: http://www.seamus2011.org/

Film maker Theo Lipfert’s Beneath the Surface (premiered in Vienna at KISS2010) has been selected for performance at SEAMUS in January 20-22 2011 in Miami. The film, featuring processed video taken from a camera that was thrown out into the ocean and gradually washed ashore by the waves, has a live Kyma-generated sound track consisting of crisply processed watery sounds recorded by the camera and randomly-selected, processed phrases of 13 year-olds recounting their vivid and sometimes disturbing dreams (beneath the surface in more ways than one!), mixed and spatialized live using Kyma Control on an Apple iPad.

Engines of…, Scott Miller‘s composition for string orchestra and Kyma-generated fixed-media, will also be performed at the SEAMUS conference.  Engines of… was commissioned and premiered by the Maplegrove High School orchestra in 2006.

Sharing a paper session are two composers who will be re-presenting their contributions from KISS2010 on the theme ‘symbolic sound’: “Constructing Realities: Nelson Goodman’s Theory of Symbol Systems and Electroacoustic Music” by Scott Miller and Steve Everett’s, “Auditory Roughness and Ecological Listening in Electro-Acoustic Music”.

Last year’s SEAMUS2010 also featured several Kyma pieces as well as a pre-conference day-long Kyma Seminar, described in the Allegro Newsletter.