[Column] Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith — The echoes of "electric life" in Buchla

Column en Ambient Buchla Modular

01 Dec 2025

[Column] Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith — The echoes of

Introduction

Text: mmr｜Theme: About her upbringing and background, changes in her work and sound, and “philosophy of sound” through Buchla

In the world of electronic music and modular synths, synths are often treated as symbols of “machines.” However, her sound overturns these preconceptions. The sound is warm and rich, as if ““you can feel a living thing or organic breath deep inside the cables and knobs of a modular synth.’’

By choosing vintage or modular equipment, especially Buchla-style modular equipment, she creates a sonic ecosystem through ““accidentality”, ““instability”, ““manuality”, or ““electrical vibrations and resonance with the body”, rather than just synthetic sounds.

By carefully weaving together voices, live instruments, field recordings, nature and physicality, he elevates the modular from a “cold machine” to a “living vessel of sound.” People who love modular and Buchla-style synths will be strongly attracted to this attitude.

Orcas Island — Nature and Homeschool Environment

Her hometown is Orcas Island, Washington State, in the northwestern United States. During his childhood, he was homeschooled on this island and grew up surrounded by rich nature and tranquility.

The breeze of the island, the rustling of the wind through the trees, the chirping of birds, the ripples of the water… these natural sensations and environmental sounds were instilled in her ears and body as she grew up.

At the same time, he was exposed to traditional instruments such as the piano and guitar from an early age, and tried composing music, developing his sense of pitch and music. This environment of ““nature x traditional instruments x independent learning’’ became the foundation for the later shift to modular.

These experiences provided her with the axes of “naturalness,” “spatiality,” and “physicality” as she later moved on to electronic/modular music.

Music education and meeting Buchla

Growing up, she studied composition and sound theory at a music educational institution in the United States, and at the same time was active in a folk duo using guitar, voice, and piano.

However, after leaving the confines of his student days and returning to his hometown, an unexpected change occurs: he encounters a Buchla 100 loaned to him by a neighbor. When she first picked up a modular synth, she saw it not as a “flimsy tool” but as a “co-star,” “a living thing,” and “an electric body.”

Buchla’s instability, manual patching, and unpredictable sound shifts - through such contingency and instability, she chooses to bring out “living sound,” “vibration,” “space,” and “physicality” from the synth.

This transformation is the basis for all of his subsequent works.

Early works and “Tides” — Prelude to modular

Her early body of work included self-produced folk and experimental tracks. However, it wasn’t until he started recording with the Buchla Music Easel that he began to seriously explore modular/electronic music.

This recording was later published in the form of Tides: Music for Meditation and Yoga. Wind chimes, rustling trees, birdsong, water sounds, small natural noises - this work combines environmental sounds/field recordings with modular electronic waveforms.

At this stage, it has not yet created a huge sensation. However, the direction of “modular + natural sounds/environmental sounds + spatiality” was already clear, and the underlying feeling of her music was emerging.

“EARS” — Multi-layered and expanded sonic universe

The real turning point was the album EARS released in 2016. In this work, while Buchla is at the center, I mixed various sound resources such as woodwind instruments, African thumb piano (mbira), voice, and field recordings to create a multi-layered sound.

The coldness of electronic sounds, the softness of organic instruments, the fluctuation of voices, and natural noises all intertwine to create a dreamy and lively sound that resembles a “futuristic jungle.”

With this work, she went from being a mere modular experimenter to a painter who uses modular objects to depict the organic world, and gained attention from many listeners and critics.

“The Kid” — A journey through the life cycle of sound

The album The Kid, released in 2017, is a work that builds on her previous sonic experiments and further emphasizes “storytelling/humanity.”

The theme of this work is ““the life cycle from birth to death,’’ and it combines a variety of sonic elements, including modular, orchestral, ethnic instruments, percussion, and voice, to create a dramatic and emotional composition.

By portraying the innocence of newborns, the surge of growth, maturity and confusion, and the stillness of finality through the medium of electronic and organic sounds, the body, and space, the listener can feel a sense of “life” within the sounds.

With this work, she went beyond the prejudice that ““electronic music = cold mechanical sound” and showed that ““electronic music can also depict human stories, emotions, and memories.”

“The Mosaic of Transformation” — A celebration of electricity, an exploration of physicality

The sound that has matured over the years since 2017 reaches new horizons with the 2020 album The Mosaic of Transformation.

In this work, she views modular synths as ““vibration mediating devices,” ““an extension of the body,” and ““a point of intersection between electricity and the body.’’ In creating the piece, the idea was to conduct electricity along with daily movement, breathing, and physical sensations - in other words, the intention was not to simply make the modular sound, but to “feel” the vibrations with your body.

As a result, this work has a sound that prioritizes “waves,” “fluctuations,” “spatial sensation,” and “physical sensation” rather than structure or form. Droney silences, rolling pads, whispering voices, and layers of enveloping synths resonate across organic and electronic, physical and electric, time and space.

This attempt is a highly poetic and meditative work that presents modular/analog synths not as mere sound sources, but as ““an interface that connects the body and the world.’’

Philosophy of Sound — Modular ⇔ Nature ⇔ Body

There is a consistent philosophy that emerges through her works and journey.

Fusion of electronic sounds and nature/environmental sounds/physicality By mixing Buchla’s electronic waveforms with the rustling of the forest, the sound of water, wind, voices, and live instruments, he transcends the dichotomy of “electronic = artificial” and “natural = organic” and creates a new “organic electronic sound = living sound.”
Affirmation of contingency/instability The instability of Buchla, the manual nature of patching, the uncontrollable deviations and fluctuations - these are not welcomed as ““flaws”, but rather as ““creative margins”, ““unexpected chemical changes”, and ““sound coincidences”.
Body sensation and vibration experience Rather than thinking of sound as something you hear with your ears, we consider it something that you feel with your body and something that you experience as vibrations. Voice, breathing, movement, vibration - by connecting these with the electric vibrations of the synthesizer, music is expanded into a perception that uses not only the auditory sense but also the entire body.
Multiple layers of temporality, spatiality, and memory Drones, undulations, pads, and field recordings extend time, thicken space, and create memories, emotions, and connections to nature in sound.

This philosophy redefines modular synths not just as sound sources or tools, but as devices that connect “the body, nature, sensations, vibrations, and time.” Her sound is a guidepost for those seeking a new way of working in electronic music.

Sound evolution — time series and sound trajectory

The following is a history of her sound, centered around her main works, moving back and forth between “electronic/experimental ⇔ organic/physical/spatial”.

graph TD A["Orcas Island Natural Environment/Childhood"] --> B["Learning traditional musical instruments (piano/guitar, etc.)"] B --> C["Music education + folk/duo activities"] C --> D["Returning to my hometown and meeting Buchla 100"] D --> E["To explore modular sound"]

graph LR A12["Cows Will Eat / Useful Trees
(Independent early work)"] A14["Tides
(Ambient Sound + Modular)"] A15["Euclid
(First official work)"] B16["EARS
(Electronic + organic + voice/woodwind, etc. fusion)"] C17["The Kid
(Life cycle narrative)"] D20["The Mosaic of Transformation
(Vibration, physicality, spatial sound)"] E22["Let's Turn It Into Sound
(Further experimentation/expansion)"] A12 --> A14 --> A15 --> B16 --> C17 --> D20 --> E22

In this way, her sound has not evolved in a linear manner, but has continued to expand and deepen in a complex manner, going back and forth between the three axes: modular/electronic ⇔ nature/body ⇔ experiment/composition.

Closing — A message to those who love Buchla

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s journey has never been a technical experiment or a show-off of skills. Her goal is to create a rich and poetic ““world of sensations” that interweaves ““the body, nature, electricity, time, and space” through the ““technical device’’ of a modular synth.

If you love Buchla and modular synths not just as equipment, but as ““living sound vessels,” ““vibrating bodies,” and ““a mixture of chance and necessity,’’ her work will serve as a guidepost for your exploration.

Through the “place” of electronic music/modular/analog synths, there is the possibility of rediscovering physical sensations, nature, time and space, memory and emotions.

–I hope this article helps shed new light on your love for Buchla and electronic music.