Yannis Kyriakides (1969, Cyprus) was born in Limassol, and in 1975 emigrated with his family to Britain. After travelling for a year with his violin in the near east, learning traditional music, he returned to England to study musicology at York University, later being drawn by the music of Louis Andriessen to move to The Netherlands, with whom he studied at the Hague Conservatory.

He has written over ninety compositions, of which recent large scale works include: memoryscape (35′) for video and ensemble (musikFabrik, WDR); satellites (50′) for ensemble and electronics (Seattle Chamber Players); disco debris (interactieve installatie, Amiens Maison de la Culture). an ocean of rain(80′) opened the Aldeburgh Music Festival in 2008. Two sound installations have been shown at the Dutch pavilion of the Venice Bienalle 2011.

He has been featured composer at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2007. He has released about 10 CDs of his music. In 2000 he won the Gaudeamus composition prize for his composition a conSPIracy cantata – regarded by The Wire magazine as “a modern classic in the making”. His CD Wordless received an honorary mention in the Prix Ars Electronica 2006. He is artistic director of Ensemble MAE, and teaches composition at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague.

mobylette is one of the few pieces of mine written for the diatonic music box. It was Ron Ford’s idea to commission a few composers to write for this medium and the VPRO made a CD of it in 1995 or thereabouts.

A friend build a motor onto a music box so it could go just a little faster than with manual action. Like a bicycle with a little motor to help you go up hills.