Framing Devices explores a spectrum of freedom given to the performer. This includes moments of indeterminacy, interpretable rhythm, and completely free improvisation. This is meant to create a greater sense of dialogue between the performer and the composer within the music. The improvising violinist in this recording is Madeline Hocking.
This is a piece for guitar and electronics that explores a noise-based language on guitar. The electronics consist of a reactive stutter/delay effect programmed in Max/MSP.
This is an audiovisual piece that Kylan collaborated on with the visual artist, Jennifer Cella. It was created for the Phonica Media Youtube channel.
I Am Made Of Information is a compilation of projects Kylan completed during his bachelor’s at Montclair State University. The pieces combine instruments, found sounds, and voice with various sound manipulation environments built in Ableton Live and Max/MSP. The name of the compilation is a statement about the malleability of sound and how all sound is made of information that can be processed and changed by computers.
Altered Landscapes is a series of pieces created using PaulXStretch. All of the sounds are short recordings of specific locations which are then stretched to the point of no longer resembling their original source. These recordings can be experienced as one moment stretched far beyond it’s normal limits, improvised with, or manipulated further to be used in other works.
This is an improvisation with Altered Landscape No. 1 performed with Phonica Media. The guitar in the performance is augmented by a variety of analog pedal effects used to blend with the track.
This is an improvisation with Phonica Media using a patch built in Max/MSP to play a variety of sounds from previous projects. The concept of the piece is to rapidly change the way you approach your improvisation, mimicking how the patch rapidly changes sounds. Kylan calls this “mode switching” and it is a concept heavily inspired by Anthony Braxton’s “Language Musics.”
This is a piece for sinfonia Kylan wrote for the Montclair State University Orchestra. It is inspired by the noise sounds of nature and machinery heard during walks Kylan would go on during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. The rustling sounds of leaves, the chirping of birds, airplanes flying overhead, cars going by intermittently were all sources of comfort during a very uncertain time.
Glitching #1 is the first in a series of pieces based around human and electronic performers coexisting seamlessly. The vocalist mimics the sounds they hear from the computer while the computer records and plays back the vocalist with a variety of effects. The computer also manipulates the vocalist in real time using bit crushing.
Glitching #2 was written for the ensemble Loadbang and involves a robust synthesis and signal processing environment. The performers are given a variety of sounds to improvise with that blend with the synthetic sounds being played from the computer. There are also a variety of processes that cause the performers to effect the pitch and rhythm of the synthetic sounds and the synthetic sounds to effect the pitch and rhythm of the performers.
This is a collage of video and sounds plundered from YouTube content surrounding the Korean idol group Loona. Loona is an idol group who’s success was partially driven by American fans taking their content and repurposing it into meme compilation videos that the community would often call “Loona on crack.” The fans also developed a practice of posting “stan Loona” to comment threads on social media which may or may not have been related to the group. This piece is a commentary and satire of the ways fans of media repurpose and engage with it to create a meta culture surrounding said media.
Kylan Hillman 
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