The composer and sculptor Aaron Taylor Kuffner is well known for co-creating the Gamelatron project in 2008, the world’s first fully robotic gamelan orchestra. His one-of-a-kind creation has been shown in major venues and festivals worldwide, ranging from the Smithsonian to Fuji Rock, and at galleries and festivals across Asia, Europe, Russia and North America.

In 1997, Kuffner created another musical project, Zemi17. Zemi means cicada in Japanese and the 17 references the 17-year lifecycle of the periodical cicadas found in the northeast of the United States. The success of the Gamelatron Project put Zemi17 on indefinite hiatus until The Bunker dug out one of Kuffer’s last surround sound live sets from Unsound New York in 2012 and asked him for a 12” of that material.

The Bunker is proud to release “Impressions” and “Rangda,” two long and seductive tracks made entirely of sounds of insects, birds, motors and urban noises spliced together with treated samples of gongs and metallophones to create lush techno compositions. It is hard to tell if this release is going to be a new beginning for Zemi17 or an homage to a wildly interesting music character who has been a part of The Bunker community from its early days at subTonic. Either way, these tracks are as beautiful as they are original.

Kuffner has been a a prolific producer of underground and outlaw events in New York since the 90's: as a cofounder of the Ransom Corp, a member of the Blackkat Sound System, Havoc Soundsystem, and Amoeba Technology, he also frequently worked with Complacent Nation. In 2002, he moved to Berlin to produce a multimedia art festival and compose for an experimental theater group, before moving even further afield to Indonesia and immersing himself in the study of gamelan.

Kuffner returned to New York in 2007, joining influential outlaw event crew The Danger as a resident DJ. He began producing music made entirely of samples he had gathered in Indonesia, re-imagined into hypnotic techno masterpieces. Alongside Dok Gregory, he amassed a large sound system that they set up in the front room of The Bunker at Public Assembly for years. Taylor also collaborated with Kevin Balktick to produce the ambient music series “Auditorium,” taught Ableton Live at DubSpot and performed on MIDI breath controllers with the trio Zero Gravity Thinkers.

A1 - Impressions (CLIP)

A re-composition of artist Aaron Taylor Kuffner's 'Gamelatron' installation--as it played while I was in the gallery of Palazzo Grimani, viewing the exhibition 'Frontiers Reimagined', at the 2015 Venice Biennale. In this personal recollection and recreation, one beautifully 'defective' hammer forms a basso continuo for the artist's automated orchestra of bells.
For more about the artist see: http://gamelatron.com/about/
For more about the exhibition see: http://www.palazzogrimani.org/mostre-ed-eventi/frontiers-reimagined/?lang=en

Sonic Postcard, Venice: Gamelan Orchestra in Palazzo Grimani

Billions

Tarifa

This is a live arrangement performed by Aaron Taylor Kuffner on the Gamelatron Gandaberunda On Day 2 of Boom Festival 2018.  The Gamelatron then played it back throughout the week.

Gandaberunda Boom 2018

Songs composed by Aaron Taylor Kuffner
Performed by Gamelatron Pohon Electrum

Where Sky And Land Meet

Find the full release at: https://www.insiturec.com/transmissions

From the album Transmissions:

Transmissions is a selection of new works that resulted from a project initiated by American composer and gamelan polymath, Wayne Vitale, in collaboration with Balinese artists I Putu Gede Sukaryana (Balot), I Made Arsa Wijaya (Wawan), and I Made Aristanaya (Aris). The project revolved around two ‘unfinished’ compositions prepared by Vitale called Perpisahan (Separation) and Tiga Kali Lima (Three Times Five), the scores of which were sent to Indonesia in Western notation with the objective that Balinese composers would ‘finish’ them. In Indonesia Jonathan Adams coached the Balinese participants, providing them with enough guidance to grasp the rudiments of Western notation. Each participant then worked independently to convert the scores into a more familiar form of Balinese boxed notation. Much of the impetus for this step was educational. All three Balinese composers were eager to engage with Western notation, and although MIDI mock-ups would have been more than sufficient, and likely more efficient, everyone agreed the collaboration would be more rewarding if the mock-ups were only handed over after each composer was able to accurately interpret the original score. In addition to notation Vitale sent descriptions of how each piece was conceived and tips for understanding the form. This allowed the composers to grasp the inner-workings of his sketches. It also made the process more meaningful because they were able to glimpse his compositional process—perhaps the most significant achievement of the entire project. Armed with the original scores, MIDI mock-ups of the sketches, and creative license to do as they pleased, the composers then arranged, re-interpreted, and completed each piece. The result is a collection of five distinct works.

Transmisi adalah pilihan karya baru yang digagas oleh komposer Amerika dan polymath gamelan Wayne Vitale bekerja sama dengan seniman Bali I Putu Gede Sukaryana (Balot), I Made Arsa Wijaya (Wawan), dan I Made Aristanaya (Aris). Proyek ini berkisar pada dua komposisi 'belum selesai' yang disiapkan oleh Vitale yang disebut Perpisahan (Separation) dan Tiga Kali Lima (Tiga Kali Lima), yang skornya dikirim ke Indonesia dalam notasi Barat dengan tujuan agar komposer Bali akan 'menyelesaikannya'. Di Indonesia, Jonathan Adams melatih para peserta Bali, memberikan mereka bimbingan yang cukup untuk memahami dasar-dasar notasi Barat. Setiap peserta kemudian bekerja secara mandiri untuk mengubah skor menjadi bentuk notasi kotak Bali yang lebih familiar. Sebagian besar motivasinya adalah untuk langkah pendidikan. Ketiga komposer Bali sangat ingin terlibat dengan notasi Barat, dan meskipun tiruan MIDI akan lebih dari cukup, dan kemungkinan lebih efisien, semua orang setuju bahwa kolaborasi akan lebih bermanfaat jika tiruan hanya diserahkan setelah masing-masing komposer mampu menafsirkan skor asli secara akurat. Selain notasi, Vitale mengirimkan deskripsi tentang bagaimana setiap bagian disusun dan tip untuk memahami formulanya. Ini memungkinkan para komposer untuk memahami cara kerja sketsa-sketsanya. Itu juga membuat prosesnya lebih bermakna karena mereka dapat melihat sekilas proses komposisinya — mungkin pencapaian paling signifikan dari keseluruhan proyek. Berbekal partitur orisinal, MIDI tiruan sketsa, dan lisensi kreatif untuk melakukan sesuka hati, para komposer kemudian menyusun, menafsirkan ulang, dan menyelesaikan setiap bagian. Hasilnya adalah kumpulan lima karya berbeda.

Transmissions

Tiga Kali Lima Jadi Tujuh Puluh - I Made Arsa Wijaya & Wayne Vitale

Gamelatron Lingkaran Kenong was made in April 2014, and remade July 2017
It is a self contained, stand alone Gamelatron piece featuring 6 Javanese mirror polished Bronze Javanese Kenong (in a slendro tuning) retrofitted with nanka wood mallets and copper anodized robotics on a circular powder coated steel sculpture.

Sweet High Lows

Record and Response was co-composed by Nat Evans and Chris Kallmyer for the NEPO 5k art event which took place in Seattle on September 8th, 2012. The music was installed inside the Daejeon Pagoda. 

Record and Response by Nat Evans and Chris Kallmyer

This is a room recording of a single Balinese Trompong with extra gongs borrowed from a Reyong with Gong Agung, Kempur, klentong, kempli and Ceng-Ceng of a composition written by Aaron Taylor Kuffner, aka Zemi17.  The arrangement was created live and performed by the Gamelatron on site in Mahola in Jakut Paku Ubud Gianyar Bali Indonesia on February 12, 2013

Contours at Mahola

Zemi17 is the electronic music project of sculptor, and composer Aaron Taylor Kuffner releasing records with the Bunker NY.

Zemi in Japanese means cicada. The 17 references the 17-year lifecycle of the periodical cicadas found in the northeast of the United States. This musical project over the last decade and a half has taken on many forms - but has remained routed in the ideals of co-opting the music and culture surrounding electronic dance music in an effort to cross it over to a wider mystery. Zemi17's music is heavily influenced by the sounds of nature and often incorporates both field recordings and algorithms from the insect and bird kingdoms into its production. He performs both as a DJ and Live PA sets in a genre titled Space Haus. His new works have been almost exclusively created for custom built surround sound systems.

As a recording artist Zemi17 began by releasing a series of 17 mix tapes as the musical wing of Cicada Enterprises, and later pressed 7" and 12" records in the late 90s with Europa Disk, Blackkat Sound and Havoc, all of which are sold out. In 2003, he self released a special spool set of 25 original recordings both from studio sessions and live sets created between 1998 and 2003 entitled The New York years. In Indonesia he produced 2 volumes of The Orchestra Jangkrik dan Gamelan Listrik Aneh in 2005 and 2006 respectively, which fused the motif structures of gamelan with cadences of insects. In 2007 he release a minimal techno album entitled The Backdoor to Wisma Langit (Hotel Sky) that was created entirely with gamelan and found samples. Two tracks (Impressions, and Rangda) from Wisma Langit were released in September 2014 on The Bunker NYC label on vinyl and for digital download with 6 new tracks scheduled for release in the Fall of 2015.

As a performing artist Zemi17 has toured the world several times over from the strangest of underground venues from Siberia to Sofia to San Francisco, as well as Live and DJ sets at Portugal's largest electronic music festival Boom and Ireland's largest music festival Electric Picnic.

In addition to Zemi17, Kuffner is the principle artist behind the Gamelatron Project (gamelatron.com), creating sound producing kinetic sculpture featuring instruments from Balinese and Javanese gamelan orchestras retrofitted with robotic mallets. He also performs on electronic wind instruments with Dok Gregory and Peter Principle as the trio called Zero Gravity Thinkers (zgt.me).

Sweet High Lows

Zemi17

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