Roland Kayn (born 3 September 1933 in Reutlingen, Germany; died 5 January 2011 in Nieuwe Pekela, Netherlands) was a composer of electronic music.[1] He is known for his lengthy works of cybernetic music.[2][3]
From 1952 to 1955 he studied composition and organ at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart. From 1956 to 1958 he studied with Tamara Blacher and Josef Rufer in Berlin. After 1960 he lived in Rome and then in Venice. In 1964 he co-founded the free improvisation group Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza. Beginning in 1970 he worked at the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht, (which later moved to The Hague) and lived in the Netherlands until his death in 2011. In 1995 he created the label Reiger-records-reeks to release his own works.[1][3]
His 14-hour composition A Little Electronic Milky Way of Sound (2009) was released on 16 CDs in October 2017 by the Finnish label Frozen Reeds.[4] Since May 2020, the Kayn estate has released a recording every month on the digital distribution platform Bandcamp. At the current rate, they estimate that it will take 20 years for his complete catalog to be released.[5] Since 2017, releases have been restored and mastered by Jim O'Rourke.[5][6][7]
