Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith "Sundry" from Western Vinyl on Vimeo.

“Sundry” is a selection from Kaitlyn‘s solo debut Euclid, which was primarily written on a Buchla Music Easel synthesizer. The album was inspired by her love of mbira music, early electronic music pioneers like Laurie Spiegel, Suzanne Ciani, and Terry Riley, and euclidean geometry. Each of the first six songs on Euclid were initially structured using euclidean geometry, an idea which Smith explored while attending a class at the San Francisco Conservatory. As Smith explains, “We each chose a 3D shape and assigned our own guidelines to the different components that make up the shape. For example each point of the shape represents a different time signature, each line between the points represents a pitch, each shape within the closed lines represents a scale, etc. And then you play the shape.” Despite their heady geometric origins, the songs have a playfulness and warmth that makes them inviting and memorable. In addition to the buoyant grooves of Smith’s synthesizers, some of the songs feature wordless vocals, which energize the otherworldly songs, while grounding them with Smith’s earthly presence.