From Mexico, Kuro Kasetto produces music with solenoids and machines that quivers and rustles as if it’s more flora than machine. It’s a world of “tiny sounds” and a source of exquisite escape.
This track from 2023 is simply haunting:
It’s ambient in the truest sense, resisting grids and song structures for a form that seems to have floated in on a breeze. But there are a number of wonderful generative mechanical, robotic structures making some of the patterns — solenoids turned organic.
It’s like watching devices on the very edge of working, in electroacoustic configurations:
Pure joy here:
A xylophone played using 5 solenoids that strike the bars mechanically. Each solenoid is controlled via MIDI with an Arduino. The MIDI notes are generated by the Bloom script running on a Norns Shield, creating constantly changing patterns. The audio is processed in real time through a Chase Bliss MOOD MKII pedal for added texture and atmosphere.
Here you see the Pd patcher structure alongside the xylophone, as the free and open source software meets up with a big part of our childhoods (for many of us, anyway):
You may have spotted this generative-solenoid kalimba sound art on Instagram, as it seems to be making the rounds in my circle, but … never gets old:
Here’s a beautiful extended set from around this time last year at Mexico City’s Sinestesia:
All the links, including Patreon:
That should be an ideal source of inspiration and calm through the weekend. Hope to hear more.