Luke Wyland – Kuma Cove (Balmat, 2024)
In Kuma Cove, Luke Wyland, an experimental composer from Portland, Oregon, crafts a unique mix of acoustic sounds, digital manipulation, and live looping. Conceived in his studio near the Sandy River, the album serves as an auditory diary, weaving together live-recorded improvisations that reveal moments of emotional clarity. Through themes of identity, self-expression, and time’s fluidity, Wyland explores his experiences as a person who stutters, where disfluency shapes his work with nuanced rhythmic interruptions and unconventional pacing.
Wyland’s music, shaped by the textures of his environment, is inspired by his regular visits to an Oregon coast cove; a place of personal refuge that lends the album its name. He describes these compositions as ecosystems, each with its own sound characteristics, mirroring the serene isolation of the cove while conveying a sense of shelter from the expansive ocean beyond. These mesmerizing, introspective, evocative compositions mark Wyland’s evolving journey, expressing a “slowing internal rhythm” as he reaches middle age.
Rejecting the simplicity of the term “looping,” Wyland envisions his music as complex, multi-layered structures where technology and live performance converge, capturing a raw, unquantized interplay of tempos. A longtime advocate of digital tools like Ableton, he considers MIDI technology an expressive extension of himself, enabling him to bend and layer time in ways that traditional analog instruments cannot.
Wyland’s career spans over two decades across multiple projects, including AU and Methods Body, and his works have been celebrated in diverse venues, from the Whitney Museum to international music festivals. His music, deeply informed by his personal journey with stuttering and synesthesia, seeks to push boundaries, using sound as a medium for self-discovery and collective connection. Through his craft, Wyland creates spaces for immersive experience, inviting listeners to explore the intimate intersections of sound, memory, and emotion.
Buy Kuma Cove.