Self-Sufficient Sound

Roland Kayn was a composer who pushed his music to the furthest extremes he could reach while doing his best to remove himself as completely as possible from the work. Kayn composed what he called “cybernetic music,” building elaborate electronics to generate systems that would respond in unplanned-for ways. He would build the basic system and turn it on, letting it self-regulate with no more human input. As Massimo Ricci described it, he was “leaving behind both the narrative element and the psycho/emotional minutiae usually associated with the notions of ‘composer’ and ‘art.’ ” “Music is sound, and sound is self-sufficient,” Kayn once said.