Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith launches multidisciplinary label, Touchtheplants

  • Share
  • It starts with a release from the artist herself—an original soundtrack for a Harry Everett Smith silent film—due out next week.
  • Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith launches multidisciplinary label, Touchtheplants image
  • US synth artist Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith has announced plans for a new multidisciplinary label project called Touchtheplants. Touchtheplants looks to highlight a broad range of artistic pursuits, including "music, dance, film, poetry, photography, instruments, explorations, experiences, clothing, fortunes [and] symposiums," according to today's announcement. "Anything is possible!" Smith herself says, adding, "The saying 'It's the thought that counts,' to me, is everything in a creation." Smith will lead the way with an annual Electronic Series release, that will remain separate from her other album projects. Each volume will feature a music recording and a comic book depicting an "existential conversation" between a plant and a human being. Electronic Series Vol 1: Abstractions, an original soundtrack for a silent film from the late experimental artist Harry Everett Smith, will come out on tape and digital formats next week, coinciding with a premiere on Adult Swim Singles. Later in the year it'll be put on vinyl. The other release announced today, and due for arrival in the fall, is Gregory Kramer's Electronic Meditations, which features "guided meditations with an encyclopedia of vintage synthesizer sounds." Kramer, a founder of the New York experimental group Electronic Art Ensemble and a longtime teacher of meditation, has been playing synths since the '70s—he's also known for developing instruments alongside Robert Moog—but he's never before released his own music. He was once Smith's neighbor, and she credits him with introducing her to the Buchla synth. To celebrate Touchtheplants' launch, Smith will play two shows each in New York and Los Angeles in May. The concerts will feature a screening and performance of Abstractions, a performance of Smith's well-regarded 2017 album The Kid and "a few surprises."
    Touchtheplants will release Electronic Series Vol 1: Abstractions on March 21st, 2018. Photo credit: Chantal Anderson
RA