Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith @ The Hub, Edinburgh, 16 Aug

The music of Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith is so physical, so guided by movement, that it feels criminal to be watching tonight’s performance glued to a bean bag. However, that's how we find ourselves on the floor of The Hub, the subwoofers in front of us sending vibrations through our bodies as waves of euphoric bleeps and bloops sing from the Buchla synthesisers Smith has spent the last decade mastering.

Smith’s story with this particular instrument began after graduation from Berkeley having studied composition and sound engineering. From her remote, sun-soaked cabin in rural Washington State, she started on a journey of exploration which would lead her from her early works exploring music for yoga, through to her critically acclaimed concept work The Kid, via various collaborations and film scores, to her latest album, Gush, due for release on 22 August.

During this period, Smith would venture further away from the early synth pioneers of Suzanne Ciani and Laurie Speigel, and closer to the dancefloor. Recent work, including a collaboration with Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard, proves that Smith is constantly finding new ways to manipulate her instrument to find new sounds. Smith says that the unpredictable nature of the Buchla is what she loves about it, and tonight, on songs like What’s Between Us, it feels like she's taming a wild beast, contorting sounds, hypnotising the audience.


Image: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith by Jess Shurte for Edinburgh International Festival

The more you read about Smith, the more her unique take on electronic music makes sense. Her mother was a yoga teacher and movement is crucial to every part of her life. This is clear from the visuals which accompany tonight's live show, each documenting the elements of her persona that make her music so appealing and special. In the visuals for Into Your Eyes she crushes fleshy fruits with her feet. In another her queerness shines as she vogues alone in an empty warehouse. Perhaps the most captivating is a POV video of Smith riding a motocross bike across dirt tracks – one of her many hobbies outside of music – which feels like an adrenaline-fuelled video game, making the music feel even more alive.

Smith is a polymath and an enigma. Her appreciation for life shines through her music. She’s not the most imposing of figures, hidden behind her instruments, with her Britney Spears microphone, but it’s clear she's completely in control and dominates the room, relishing in every second as the music flows out of her. Smith has synaesthesia and thus feels music viscerally in her nervous system, and as she sings the words to the title track from Gush – ‘I like the way you see things, I like the way you think about it’ – for a brief moment of transcendence during the busiest month of year we get the smallest glimpse into her world full of wonder and joy.

---

Edinburgh International Festival runs until 24 Aug

eif.co.uk
kaitlynaureliasmith.com