Roland Kayn “Cybernetic Music” [Reiger-Records-Reeks]

Roland Kayn (b. 1933) is a super theoretical electronic Dutch/German composer, one who draws more inspiration from linguists and information theorists than from other music or musicians. He was a Prix de Rome winner! When reading up on this guy and his cybernetic creations, I was reminded of Bischoff. He’s been releasing his complete works Stockhausen-style, that is, on his own label as 2-CD releases in limited quantity for many euros.

There are four long tracks here which would serve just as well for your grueling gravedigging time-filler as it would on the soundtrack of the latest IMAX film exploring the ocean canyons. The selections are totally wholesome and flowing. Kayn’s algorithms and autonomously-created sounds have a thoroughly analog depth to them, a refreshing full-spectrum sound and texture that can only be created electronically.

On Ready-Made I, I imagined myself hurtling at the speed of light along desert landscapes where the surroundings start to bleed in that clich’d time-travel special effect, even though the music itself isn’t fast. Ready-Made II transforms organ sounds into an insectoid maelstrom. Metrical phase play works in way into the last half, this track could easily be followed by Reich’s 4 Organs. Collage makes similar but more relaxed treatment of what sounds like a calliope. Decollage is a silent take-off over a vast port peppered with tugboats and foghorns. Halfway through things change for the noisier and this track too begins to focus a little more on rhythms & phases.

-Cujo, KFJC, May 2006