it's so easy (the mechanism of power) - installation - Atlanta Film Festival - 2016

w/ Russell Sheaffer

it's so easy (the mechanism of power) - installation - Atlanta Film Festival - 2016

for amplified violin
recorded by Ashot Sarkissjan on 2/27/18 at CFA Hall as part of a residency at BU
composed between 9/2017 - 12/2017
recording edited November 2021

l'anamnèse

collaboration w/ Orr Menirom

her description of the film:
In this autofictional sci-fi essay, three characters— a writer, her daughter and an android woman— incarnate in each other’s body, voice and memories.

This is an earlier mix I made for the film, that eventually got cut down into the final film version.

learn more about it here:
https://orrmenirom.com/The-Folder

The Folder (Aaron Uncut Mix)

video collaboration with Grace Byron for the Études series, produced by Artless Media - video release forthcoming

made in 2020

Étude 3a: Nocturne

collaboration w/ Russell Sheaffer

description of film by Russell:
A rumination on parenting, razor blades, facial hair, Jell-o shots, Coyote Ugly, and Russell Crowe.

Russell has a beautiful voice-over he wrote, this is just the sound beneath the voice-over.

An Imagined Violet (sound only version)

short film collaboration with Russell Sheaffer

filmed on Anacapa Island, California

bird sounds field recordings by Russell Sheaffer

violins & electronics, composition & mixing by Aaron Michael Smith

Anacapa

film essay (13:46) by visual artist, Hanae Utamura, for the Aomori Contemporary Art Center

Watch here: https://vimeo.com/760909399

I created original sound for part two of the film and mixed the sound for the full film. This is just a mix of the beginning intro & second part sound which I made.

more info here:
https://aaronmichaelcomp.myportfolio.com/spring-water-fault-body

Spring Water, Fault, Body / 湧き水と断層と身体 (excerpt)

for amplified bassoon, 2.1 electronics, Max/MSP, lights

bassoon - Jay Rauch

composed for Jay Rauch in March 2019

recorded in Wellesley, MA 2019

studio version (edited 2022)
more info, live version & video here:
aaronmichaelcomp.myportfolio.com/o6

for alto saxophone, objects, 2.1 electronics, Max/MSP

stereo studio version
recorded 5/7/2019
mixed/edited July 2023

recorded by Black Sheep Ensemble:
alto saxophone: Nicole DeMaio
percussion/objects: Bradley Frizzell

commissioned by the Black Sheep Ensemble - Boston, in April 2019

movements:
i. Bei der individualisierten Sprache (Kempff)
ii. …time…relationship… (Bewegungen) …ist Rein…
iii. Mikroaufgeregt
iv. (törni)…if you…glaube…meine Rettung…completely closed, completely circumscribed…der Veränderung…you…you’ve…(törni)
v. …I hear ‘em talk, remember…Sie daran.
vi. Leise/Stärke

more info here:
aaronmichaelcomp.myportfolio.com/kozott-studien

között-Studien(Studio Version)

for two amplified voices, two cell phones, 2.1 fixed electronics

voices: Jay Rauch & Aaron Michael Smith

composed 2-3/2020
recorded on 1/2021
edited 2023

title from Davina Quinlivan's "The Place of Breath in Cinema" in reference to Luce Irigaray's "The Way of Love"

weaves a proximity

for ten players

reading by Sound Icon

Boston University 2017

more info: https://aaronmichaelcomp.myportfolio.com/vocalis

vocalis

for ten players

reading by Sound Icon

Boston University 2016

more info: https://aaronmichaelcomp.myportfolio.com/vocalis

studies in phonology

been working on a solo viola/electronics set for myself that I finally jumped into the deep with thanks to Epsilon Spires up in Vermont - an amazing home for experimental art in a beautiful old church in the very cute town of Brattleboro

was booked back in August to open up for a screening of Gregg Araki’s film “The Doom Generation”, which I hadn’t seen before but was totally enthralled to have been paired with

UN/NO live set @ Epsilon Spires, VT - 8-25 -23

Ben Masi - double bass & electric bass
Aaron Michael Smith - violin
Dead Palaces - electronics, mixing, mastering

DEAD PALACES - Mandy

sound for 6th short film collaboration w/ Dutch filmmaker/artist Michael Fleming

NIGHT TRAWLER

Aaron Michael Smith (UN/NO) is a composer, violist and artist currently based in Boston, MA.  Aaron is interested in exploring the way that various practices and mediums overlap, reflect and contradict one another.  He is often engaged in collaborations with filmmakers, visual artists, philosophers and other musicians.

masters: 
composition with Joshua Fineberg & Rodney Lister @ Boston University
undergrad: 
music composition & viola performance @ Indiana University Jacobs School of Music - Bloomington, Indiana
from a small town in northern Indiana called Wabash.  

contact me here or at aaronmichaelcomposer AT gmail.com

Popular tracks by Aaron Michael Smith (UN/NO)