Kynan Robinson is an Australian trombonist and composer. He is most commonly associated with jazz but also plays other styles.
Robinson was born in Australia but spent his childhood in Bangladesh[1] [2] as a child of Christian missionary parents. They lived there for fifteen years and were the only white people in the village. He returned to Australia to complete high school. He received a bachelor's degree in music from the Victorian College of the Arts which he built on completing a Masters in Composition in 2010. He is a composer and musician.
Robinson formed a contemporary improvisation quintet named En Rusk performing original compositions. The band toured Australia a number of times. They recorded their debut self-titled album 2001 and in 2004 finished their second recording, 1000 Wide. In 2005 he formed The Escalators, which released an album entitled Wrapped in Plastic,[3] compositions and concepts inspired by the films of David Lynch. He also established a reputation in electronic/techno/sample based music. Continuing his recording and touring career mainly with dance/performance ac Des Peres (originally known as Old Des Peres)[4] and second with Hard Hat, a group that brings together electronic and acoustic musicians. Both acts toured Australia and internationally regularly performing at summer festivals around Australia and internationally. Des Peres completed their debut album in 2004. The album was released through Flict/Shock. Their second album Ace Doubt was released in 2006 through Flit/MGM. Des Peres combines a theatrical stage approach with a sample-heavy sound. While playing with the band, Robinson adopts the name Old Des and works very with Luva DJ (Michelle Robinson) and Mr. Ection (visual artist and brother Kiron Robinson) as well as guitarist Tom Bass and Kelsey James. Their third album was entitled The Adventures of Cowboy and Miniman.[5]
In 2010 he formed Australian Jazz band Collider with Melbourne saxophonist Adam Simmons. Combining a traditional jazz ensemble with orchestral and improvising string players, "Solo in Red"[6] was a large form composition composed by Robinson, performed by Collider and commissioned by the Melbourne Writers Festival. Its thematic material was drawn from the writings of American novelist Cormac McCarthy.[7] [8]
Beyond just music the completed work also involved a highly technical and moving video work, a lighting design and narration with excerpts from the book narrated on stage. Solo in Red was released as an album at the same time the band also released a second album, titled "Words". When working on the music for "Words" he returned a third time to his technique of using literary figures and texts.[9]
Robinson has toured and recorded with C.W. Stoneking, Brian Brown, and the Melbourne Ska Orchestra, Miss Yugoslavia and the Bare Foot Orchestra,[10] The Adam Simmons Toy Band, BucketRider, and Peter Knight's 5+2 Brass Ensemble. He is also featured on the Australian TV Series Miss Fischer's Murder Mysteries produced by the ABC. He has composed music for jazz ensembles, dance productions, musical theatre, contemporary classical ensembles, and electronic dance acts and has had his compositions performed in festivals around the world. In 2001 he was a collaborative composer for Double Venturi, a collaborative piece involving musicians and funded by Arts Victoria. In 2004 he received funding through the Australia Council to compose a concert-length work for prepared piano and small ensemble that was premiered at the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz. He also has scored the music to six short films and has collaborated in numerous cross arts projects with visual artists including Kiron Robinson, Narinda Reevers, and Dave Macleod. Robinson has won three ARIA awards. In 2014 he was recognised and awarded with the ICTEV/DLTV Educational Leader of the Year Award.
7. O'Mara, J. and Robinson, K., 2017. Mining the Cli-Fi world: renegotiating the curriculum using Minecraft. Serious play: literacy, learning and digital games, pp. 114–131.8. Robinson, K., 2014. Games, Problem Based Learning and Minecraft. The Journal of Digital Learning and Teaching Victoria, 1(1), pp. 32–45.