A major reissue of Roland Kayn's cybernetic music: a 5-CD boxed set based on the original recordings from the Lydia and Roland Kayn Archive, sensibly remastered by
Jim O'Rourke.
The box set includes the tracks from legendary opuses MAKRO I, II, III, created at the Institute for Sonology, and Elektroakustische Projekte, featuring works like Cybernetic I, II, and III, which were recorded at the Studio di Fonologia in Milan, alongside Entropy PE31, Monades, and Eon. These pieces – previously available only on rare out-of-print vinyl editions – highlight both Kayn's innovative approach to musical structures and his significant impact on the development of electronic and cybernetic compositions.
Roland Kayn poetically described Makro (1977) during an interview with Mark van de Voort: "Makro breathes in and breathes out, then it breathes in again before disappearing into the dark." This imagery emphasizes the delicate balance and subtle transition through which the piece unfolds and eventually fades. The idea of the music "disappearing into the dark" suggests a soft, elusive conclusion, as if the sounds gradually dissolve into a space where they can no longer be heard, but still linger in some way.
This description also synthesizes the mystical and organic qualities of the piece: the music doesn't end abruptly, but transitions smoothly into silence, like a clear picture gradually turning into shadow. Kayn's reflection that he was never able to fully recapture this unique quality in his later works shows how Makro—a composition where sound, process, and silence merge in a single entity—was a special creature for him.
Roland Kayn (1933-2011) was a German composer of electronic music, known for his lengthy works of cybernetic music.
Roland Kayn started composing at an early age. He was just 20 years old when he won first prize at the festival of 20th century music in Karuizawa, Japan. Performances of his composition
Aggregate (1959) resulted in him becoming persona non grata on the concert stage. Shortly after working in electronic studios in Poland, Germany and Italy, he joined the Gruppo Nuova Consonanza and this crucial detour into improvisation with Franco Evangelisti,
Aldo Clementi and Ennio Morricone helped him find his definitive musical direction. Kayn decided to pursue his musical quest through composition with the intention, strange as it may seem, of excluding the composer as much as possible. He concentrated solely on electronic and electro-acoustic music from 1970 onwards.
From an early age, Kayn was influenced by information theorists rather than other composers, and it was as a result of this that he started using the term "cybernetic" when describing his music. Basically, Kayn would design networks of electronic equipment and then develop a system of signals and commands that it could obey and execute. Words like "melody," "harmony," and "rhythm" do not apply to Kayn's music. Music, supposedly, should have every detail defined by the composer. Kayn insisted that his "cybernetic" music should regulate itself, thereby relinquishing the narrative elements and the psycho-emotional details usually associated with the ideas of "authorship" and "work of art." This meant that even he could not predict the eventual composition, which were sound processes without an epicentre, where every sound is equally important. For Kayn, "
Music is sound, which is sufficient in itself." Roland Kayn felt that present day composers should avail themselves of the electronic techniques at their disposal and that electronic music is more than just the result of rapidly expanding technology.
– Frans van Rossum
