Ask Me Anything about Max with Umut Eldem
Ask Me Anything about Max with Umut Eldem
Should fair use allow AI to be trained on copyrighted music?
Dom Aversano
This week the composer Ed Newton-Rex brought the ethics of AI into focus when he resigned from his role in the Audio team at Stability AI, citing a disagreement with the fair use argument used by his ex-employer to justify training its generative AI models on copyrighted works.
In a statement posted on Twitter/X he explained the reasons for his resignation.
For those unfamiliar with ‘fair use’, this claims that training an AI model on copyrighted works doesn’t infringe the copyright in those works, so it can be done without permission, and without payment. This is a position that is fairly standard across many of the large generative AI companies, and other big tech companies building these models — it’s far from a view that is unique to Stability. But it’s a position I disagree with.
I disagree because one of the factors affecting whether the act of copying is fair use, according to Congress, is “the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work”. Today’s generative AI models can clearly be used to create works that compete with the copyrighted works they are trained on. So I don’t see how using copyrighted works to train generative AI models of this nature can be considered fair use.
As Newton-Rex states, this is quite a standard argument made by companies using copyright material to train their AI. In fact, Stability AI recently submitted a 23-page document to the US Copyright Office arguing their case. Within it, they state they have trained their Stable Audio model on ‘800,000 recordings and corresponding songs’ going on to state.
These models analyze vast datasets to understand the relationships between words, concepts, and visual, textual or musical features ~ much like a student visiting a library or an art gallery. Models can then apply this knowledge to help a user produce new content, This learning process is known as training.
This highly anthropomorphised argument is at least very questionable. AI models are not like students for obvious reasons: they do not have a body, do not have emotions, and have no life experience. Furthermore, as Stability AI’s own document testifies, they do not learn in the same way that humans learn; if a student were to study 800,000 pieces of music over a ten-year period that would require analysing 219 different songs a day.
The contrast in how humans learn and think was highlighted by the American linguist and cognitive scientist Noam Chomsky in his critique of Large Language Models (LLMs).
The human mind is not, like ChatGPT and its ilk, a lumbering statistical engine for pattern matching, gorging on hundreds of terabytes of data and extrapolating the most likely conversational response or most probable answer to a scientific question. On the contrary, the human mind is a surprisingly efficient and even elegant system that operates with small amounts of information; it seeks not to infer brute correlations among data points but to create explanations.
A lot of this issue is further complicated by the language emerging from the AI community, which varies from anthropomorphic (‘co-pilot’) to deistic (‘godlike’) to apocalyptic (‘breakout scenarios’). Specifically with Stability AI, the company awkwardly evokes Abraham Lincon’s Gettysburg Address when writing on their website that they are creating ‘AI by the people for the people’ with the ambition of ‘building the foundation to activate humanity’s potential’.
While of course, they are materially different circumstances there is nevertheless a certain echo here of the civilising mission used to morally rationalise the economic rapaciousness of empire. To justify the permissionless use of copyrighted artwork on the basis of a mission to ‘activate humanity’s potential’ in a project ‘for the people’ is excessively moralistic and unconvincing. If Stability AI wants their project to be ‘by the people’ they should have artists explicitly opt-in before using their work, but the problem with this is that many will not, rendering the models perhaps not useless, but greatly less effective.
This point was underscored by venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz who recently released a rather candid statement to this effect.
The bottom line is this: imposing the cost of actual or potential copyright liability on the creators of AI models will either kill or significantly hamper their development.
Although in principle supportive of generative AI Newton-Rex does not ignore the economic realities behind the development of AI. In a statement that I will finish with, he succinctly and eloquently brings into focus the power imbalance at play and its potential destructiveness
Companies worth billions of dollars are, without permission, training generative AI models on creators’ works, which are then being used to create new content that in many cases can compete with the original works. I don’t see how this can be acceptable in a society that has set up the economics of the creative arts such that creators rely on copyright.
If you have an opinion you would like to share on this topic please feel free to comment below.
Dom Aversano is a British-American composer, percussionist, and writer. You can discover more of his work in his Substack publication, Liner Notes.
In defence of the Iklectik Art Lab
Dom Aversano
There are moments when you know you’ve really travelled down an avant-garde rabbit hole. I experienced this when watching the essay documentary on Soviet Era synthesisers Elektro Moskva, at the Iklectik Art Lab in Lambeth South London. At one point in the film, a synth is played that divides the octave into something like 70 tones. By most definitions, it was not a pleasant sound, and it wasn’t just me who thought so. Tony, the resident cat, had enough, and let out a prolonged howl that drowned out the sound of the synth and turned everyone in the audience’s heads around to focus their attention on this alpha feline, in what felt like a clear admonishment from the animal kingdom; having conquered the world, did we not have something better to do than listen to the sound of a (frankly crap) synth droning away in the crumbling remains of a communist dystopia?
Well, Tony, sorry to disappoint you, but no.
The value of Iklectik to London’s music scene is hard to quantify, as it has made space for many artistic activities that might otherwise be filtered out, and not least of all, the music hacking scene. The acoustic music hacking group Hackoustic has put on regular events in the appropriately named Old Paradise Yard for about 8 years. In no small part, this is because Eduard Solaz and Isa Barzizza have always been gracious hosts, willing to sit down with artists and treat them with respect and fairness. Unfortunately, it appears that this has not been reciprocated by the owners of the land, who are now warning of imminent eviction and wish to transform the land into the kind of homogenous office space that turns metropolises into overpriced, hollowed-out, dull places.
I spoke to the founder of Iklectik, Eduard Solaz, who had the following to say.
Why are you being evicted from Old Paradise Yard and when are you expected to leave?
This decision came quickly after the Save Waterloo Paradise campaign mobilised nearly 50,000 supporters and persuaded Michael Gove to halt the development project, something we have been campaigning for over this last year. Our public stance against the controversial plans has resulted in this punitive action against IKLECTIK and the other 20 small businesses here at Old Paradise Yard. Currently, despite not yet having permission for the full redevelopment, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation are refusing to extend Eat Work Art’s (the site leaseholder) lease.
What impact will this development have on the arts and the environment?
For more than nine years, we, along with musicians, artists, and audiences, have collaboratively cultivated a unique space where individuals can freely explore and showcase groundbreaking music and art while experiencing the forefront of experimental creativity. London needs, now more than ever, to safeguard grassroots culture.
From an environmental perspective, this development is substantial and is expected to lead to a significant CO2 emissions footprint. Consequently, it poses a potential threat to Archbishop’s Park, a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation that serves as a vital green space for Lambeth residents and is home to a diverse range of wildlife. It also puts Westminster’s status as a Unesco World Heritage sight at risk.
Do you see hope in avoiding the eviction, and if so, what can people do to prevent it?
There is hope. In my opinion, the GSTT Foundation, operating as a charitable organisation, should reconsider its decision and put an end to this unjust and distressing situation. We encourage all of our supporters to reach out to the foundation and advocate for an end to this unfair eviction.
Here you can find more information to help us: https://www.iklectik.org/saveiklectik
To get a sense of what this means for London’s music hacking community I also spoke to Tom Fox, a lead organiser for Hackoustic, who put on regular nights at Iklectik.
Can you describe why Iklectik is significant to you and the London arts scene?
Iklectik is one of London’s hidden gems, and as arts venues all over the UK are dying out, it has been a really important space for people like us to be able to showcase our work. We’ve had the privilege of hosting well over 100 artists in this space through the Hackoustic Presents nights and it helped us, and others, find their tribe. We’ve made so many friends, met their families, met their kids, found like-minded people and collaborated on projects together. We’ve had people sit in the audience, and get inspired by artists who then went on to make their own projects and then present with us. Some of our artists have met their life partners at our events! The venue isn’t just a place to watch things and go home, they’re meeting places, networking places, social gatherings and a place to get inspired. I doubt all of these things would have happened if Iklectik weren’t such a special place, run by such special people.
Do you think there is a possibility that Michael Gove might listen?
It’s the hope that gets you! I’m a big believer in hope. It’s a very powerful thing. I don’t have much hope in Michael Gove, however. Or the current government in general. But, you know, there’s always hope.
To take action.
Undoubtedly, Iklectik is up against a bigger opponent, but it is not a foregone conclusion, especially since Michael Gove has halted the development. There is a genuine opportunity for Old Paradise Yard to stay put.
Here is what you can do to help…
On Iklectik’s website, there are four actions that can be taken to help try to prevent the eviction. In particular write to Michael Gove and write to the GSTT Foundation.
For those in the UK, you can attend Hackoustic’s event this Saturday 11th November.
Having collaborated with the Iklectik Art Lab, we at Music Hackspace would like to wish Eduard Solaz, Isa Barzizza, and all the other artists and people who work at Old Paradise Yard the best in their struggle to remain situated there.
Dom Aversano is a British-American composer, percussionist, and writer. You can discover more of his work in his Substack publication, Liner Notes.
Ask Me Anything about Dorico: From Score to Mock-Up
Writing sheet music is essential when working with live musicians, but it can be daunting. In this session, film/tv composer Helen Noir answers any questions you have about music notation. Download Dorico SE for free.
My learning journey with Music Hackspace
HighHarmonics
This post is about my learning journey over the past 1 – 2 years – how I came to Music Hackspace and what it came to mean for me. I’m writing because I have gained so much from this platform. So I want to share and hopefully inspire others.
My engagement with Music Hackspace includes:
- Frequently attending Max Meetups and other online events
- Using 20+ individual courses
- Using my Going Deeper subscription to the fullest
- Following the Blog and other communications.
Plus, I have an ever growing list of more content that I want to get to!
But first, to give some context, a little bit about me.
I’m a composer, formally trained in the classical concert tradition. Now I’m doing music technology and create experimental electronic music. I build digital instruments in Max/MSP, and I do live coding in TidalCycles and Sardine. I also contribute where I can to open source projects, leveraging my experience in IT.
Several years ago I essentially restarted my musical life exclusively in the digital realm focusing on music created via DAWs with plugins. Initially, this brought me down a path towards music production – learning skills of editing, mixing, mastering, etc. This led to a focus towards deterministic music, extensive automation to control all the details, VSTs, and trying to create a perfect mix. While this was a great experience, at one point I realized I needed more creative flexibility and didn’t want to devote all my energy to mixing sonically polished products. I realized that I wanted (needed!) to create my own tools and make experimentation and improvisation a central part of my work.
So I turned to Max/MSP and started exploring!
And what an amazing journey it has been! After my first major project I quickly realized how powerful and extensive the Max platform is making it well suited for my objective of gaining creative flexibility. But I also understood that it would take a long time to master, and — most importantly — I needed some help!! While I’m a pretty good autodidact, this was a space where I needed guidance from experts and regular exposure to how other people use Max.
Finding Music Hackspace – the Instructors make the difference
Cycling ’74 has a page devoted to Resource for learning Max. That’s how I found Music Hackspace. While it wasn’t the only learning direction I pursued, I quickly found a home here. From my first engagement on, I found every course instructor, meetup presenter, organizer, etc. to be top notch. These are people who love music technology, love sharing what they know, and who know how to break it down for you. Plus they are musicians, composers, producers, engineers, etc who use these tools to build their own creative technology solutions. So they come from the same space I aspire to inhabit. That’s a big deal!
MHS Courses & learning structure
Most of the courses I have used follow a similar format. They have focused topics, learning agendas, short presentations/demos, example files, and learning exercises. The Max classes are really great at providing actual Max patch files to use in the course. Phelan Kane teaches many of these and he provides Max patches in pairs, where you have the opportunity to build the solution from a rough outline, then view the full patch to see how you did. It’s an ideal way to learn. (Ok, I admit that sometimes I cheat and skip right to the solution…)
I found this type of learning to be an excellent way to build skills and gain confidence. Plus it gave me a library of materials I still refer to when I’m working on Max patching.
I also have done a few sessions on modern orchestration techniques. Helen Noir is great! For the Violin class, she brought in a violinist who demonstrated playing techniques while Helen covered how to translate this with digital instruments. This combination was amazing. Even though I had a good background and composing experience in this area, I still learned a lot, including learning about recent developments in digital instruments with physical modeling, like using the Swam Instruments.
In addition to Phelan Kane and Helen Noir, other instructors / artists I’ve had include: Umut Eldem, Massimiliano Cerioni, Ted Moore, Anna Lakatos, Ned Rush. All of them excellent!
Subscription Plan – Going Deeper
After completing a few courses, I found out about the subscription plan. I thought about it for a while, and my left brain made a list of all the courses I wanted to use and own, comparing costs of doing that against the cost of a subscription. I would save money this way, but I hesitated, because I wasn’t sure if I would stick with it. What if I lost interest or just forgot about it? In the end, my right brain won out because I wanted to be free to engage with new content and live sessions and not have to think – hey, do I really want to do this course right now? Maybe I should get it later when I have more time…. yadda yadda yadda.
Going Deeper was great! (And I didn’t forget about it!) It felt like an investment in my creative and technical me – investment in $ and learning time. It made me feel free to explore anything new that came up without worrying about whether I should buy something that I might not use right away.
Max Meetups
The other thing I love about MHS is the monthly Max Meetups. These have been so good. Usually the format is to have an organizer who invites 2 – 3 presenters. It takes place in Zoom, so after the presentations there are breakout rooms for questions, informal discussion, etc. I’ve been participating in these now for a year and a half. The great thing is that I’ve been exposed to things I might never have found on my own. Or things that I didn’t understand very well, so I didn’t know enough to know it would interest me.
The other thing I love about meetups is that it has greatly expanded the realm of things I want to explore – things like spectral synthesis, sonification, visual music, various live coding platforms, the Bach/Cage Max library, many Max externals, etc. Plus these sessions always give me a tangible sense that I am participating with a global community of people making music, sound, and art with technology and Max in specific. It is a great community to feel part of.
Just to give one example – at the Oct (2022) meetup Sabina Covarrubias presented her work with visual music using Max. She also covered a topic: “Digital wellness for artists.” She talked about how to cultivate resilience and the importance of differentiating between different types of work and phases in a project: technical design, programming, interface / UI work, and creative/expressive work. She urges us all to make time & space for each. What a great message!
Another fantastic session was the meetup last spring on the book Generating Sound and Organizing Time. The two authors – Graham Wakefield and Gregory Taylor – each presented for an hour. These guys literally “wrote the book” on gen~ programming – which is the essential for anyone who wants to use gen~ in Max. Of course the session was a huge firehose – each of them had enough material prepared easily for a 3 hour session! Hopefully MHS will bring them back for more (hint, hint…).
So, what have I gained from all of this?
I’ve done a lot of technical learning and training in my life. And I’ve learned that it doesn’t amount to much if you don’t use it. But with all my Music Hackspace related time, I feel that everything I’ve done has been useful. And it has this great cumulative impact. Specific things I’ve learned about include
- Digital Synthesis techniques: (physical modeling, wavetable, subtractive, spectral, AI assisted)
- Generative composition techniques
- Digital Signal Processing: (audio signals, delay circuits, filters and effects processing, block diagrams, etc.)
- Max/MSP objects and patch design; gen~ fundamentals
- Basic sequencing in Max
- Digital scoring techniques
More importantly, I’ve gained an excellent foundation and greatly expanded the areas I’m interested in. Furthermore, I have more confidence in tackling these things.
But in the end, the proof’s in the pudding. So here is an example of a completed project that can be viewed on YouTube. It uses a digital instrument / Max patch that I created based on wavetable synthesis in gen~, but also uses various DSP techniques, delays, filters, VSTs etc. Embedded in this solution are many things I learned during my Music Hackspace journey.
Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think!
Music Hackspace competition winner announced!
Dom Aversano
Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter our competition to win a year’s free membership to the Music Hackspace. Your music recommendations were excellent, in fact so much so we’ve turned them into a platform-neutral playlist below.
You can see the winner drawn by random in Supercollider in the video below!
PLAYLIST
- Lili Boulanger / Vieille prière bouddhique
- Joshua Fried / SEiZE THE MEANS
- Martin Stimming/ Tanz Für Drei
- Bon Iver / 715 CREEKS
- DJ Shadow / Entroducing (album)
- Alessandro Cortini / LO SPECCHIO
- Ned Rush / Youtube Channel
- Klaus Schulze / Time Wind
- Morton Subotnick / Sidewinder
- Bernard Parmegiani / De Natura Sonorum
- Kaija Saariaho / Vers le blanc
Live coding – an interview with Lizzie Wilson (Digital Selves)
Dom Aversano
The live coding scene has been growing over the years. Despite this, for many the idea of watching someone create music in code might not have an immediate appeal, though live coders are now playing at top night clubs, experimental music venues, and festivals. As the world becomes more code literate it is likely to become more popular.
Curious to know more about these digital improvisers I sat down for a chat with Lizzie Wilson (Digital Selves) who is a leading musician in the field who learned the art of music coding in the lively scene in Leeds, but now lives in London.
Did you have a background in either music or programming before you got into live coding?
I grew up with traditional instruments playing piano and guitar, though I always found I had a bit of trouble with coordination. I also found it limiting to be tied down to expressing ideas musically through physicality. I always did that on the side and really enjoyed it. Then I studied mathematics at university. So not really coding, but obviously it underpins a lot of the ideas in coding.
I didn’t start coding until I found out about Algorave and live coding. It was through one of my good friends, Joanne Armitage. My friends would run little house parties and she would rock up with a laptop and start doing live coding, and I remember seeing it and thinking, Oh, that’s really cool, I’d love to do a bit of this.
Which city was this?
At the time I was based in Leeds, Yorkshire, because that’s where many people were based, and there was a lot happening in the city. This was around 2015/2016.
I didn’t know much about coding or how to code. So I started to learn a bit and pick stuff up, and it felt really intuitive and fast to learn. So it was a really exciting experience for me.
It’s quite rare to find coding intuitive or easy to learn.
Yeah, I had tried a few more traditional ways. I bought a MIDI keyboard and Ableton. While I really enjoyed that, there was something about live coding that made me spend a whole weekend not talking to anyone and just getting really into it. I think that’s, as you say, quite rare, but it’s exciting when it happens.
That’s great. Were you using Tidal Cycles?
Yeah, it was Tidal Cycles. So Joanne was using Supercollider, which is, you know, a really big program. When I first started I wanted to use Supercollider because that was all I knew about. So I tried to learn Supercollider, but there were a lot of audio concepts that I didn’t know about at that time and it was very coding intensive. It was quite a lot for someone who didn’t know much about either at the time, so I never really got into Supercollider.
Then I went to an algorave in Leeds and I saw Alex McLean performing using Tidal Cycles. I remember that performance really well. The weekend after I thought, you know, I’m going to download this and try it out. At that time Alex — who wrote the software — was running a lot of workshops and informal meetups in the area. So there was a chance to meet up with other people who were interested in it as well.
Was this a big thing in Leeds at that time?
Yes, definitely around Yorkshire. I’m sure there were people in London in the late 2000s that were starting off. In the early 2010s, there were a lot of people working, because people were employed by universities in Yorkshire, and it’s got this kind of academic adjacent vibe, with people organising conferences around live coding.
There was a lot happening in Yorkshire around that time, and there still is. Sheffield now tends to be the big place where things are based, but we’re starting to create communities down in London as well and across the UK. So yes, I think Yorkshire is definitely the informal home of it.
I’m curious about what you said earlier about the limitations of physicality. To invert that — what do you consider the liberating ideas that drew you to code and made it feel natural for you?
I think it being so tightly expressed in language. I like to write a lot anyway, so that makes it very intuitive for someone like me. I like to think through words. So I can type out exactly what I want a kick drum sample to do: play two times as fast, or four times as fast. Using words to make connections between what you want the sounds to do is what drew me to it, and I think working this way allows you to achieve a level of complexity quite quickly.
With a traditional digital audio workstation, you have to copy and paste a lot and decide, for instance, on the fourth time round I want to change this bar, and then you have to zoom into where the fourth set of notes is. There’s a lot of copy and pasting and manual editing. I found being able to express an idea in a really conjunct and satisfying way in code exciting. It allows you to achieve a level of complexity quite quickly that produces interesting music.
The live aspect of performance places you within a deeper tradition of improvisation, however, code is more frequently associated with meticulous engineering and planning. How does improvisation work with code?
I think that’s something really interesting. If you think about coding in general, it tends to be, say, you want to make a product, so you go away and you write some code and it does something. This way of coding is very different because you do something, you try it out, and then you ask, does this work? Yes or no. That’s kind of cool, and you see the process happening in real-time, rather than it just being a piece of code that is run and then produces a thing.
Part of the thrill of improvisation comes from the risk of making mistakes publicly, which makes it exciting for the audience and for the artists. How do you feel about improvising?
At first, I always found it quite scary, whereas now I find it enjoyable. That is not to say I am completely fine now, but you get through this process of learning to accept the error or learning to go where it takes you. So yeah, I find the level of unpredictability and never knowing what’s going to happen a really interesting part of it.
How much of an idea do you have of what you’re going to do before performing?
There are people who are a bit more purist and start completely from scratch. They do this thing called blank slate coding, where they have a completely blank screen and then over the performance they build it up. The more time you spend learning the language, the more you feel confident at accessing different ideas or concepts quicker, but I like to have a few ideas and then improvise around them. When I start performing I have some things written on the screen and then I can work with them.
It’s not like one way is more righteous than the other, and people are quite accepting of that. You don’t have to start completely from scratch to be considered coding, but there are different levels of blindness and improvisation that people focus on.
It seems like there are more women involved in live coding than in traditional electronic scenes. Is that your experience?
Yes, and there has been a conscious effort to do that. It’s been the work of a lot of other women before me who’ve tried hard to make sure that if we’re putting on a gig there are women involved in the lineup. This also raises questions like, how do we educate other women? How do we get them to feel comfortable? With women specifically, the idea of failure and of making mistakes can be difficult. There is some documentation on this, for instance, a paper by Dr Joanna Armitage, Spaces to Fail In, that I think is really interesting and can help with how to explore this domain.
It’s not just women though. I think there are other areas that we could improve on. Live coding is not a utopia, but I think people are trying to make it as open a space as possible. I think this reflects some of the other ideas of open-source software, like freedom and sharing.
What other live coders inspire you?
I would say, if I’m playing around the UK, I would always watch out for sets from +777000 (with Nunez on visuals), Michael-Jon Mizra, yaxu, heavy lifting, dundas, Alo Alik, eye measure, tyger blue plus visualists hellocatfood, Joana Chicau and Ulysses Popple, mahalia h-r
More internationally, I really like the work of Renick Bell, spednar, {arsonist}, lil data, nesso, hogobogobogo & gibby-dj
If someone goes to an algorave what can they expect? Is the audience mostly participants, or is there an audience for people who don’t code?
I think you always get a mixture of both. There are some people who are more interested in reading and understanding the code. Often they forget to dance because they’re just standing there and thinking, but there is dancing. There should be dancing! I feel like, if you’re making dance music, it’s nice when people actually dance to it!
It depends on the person as well. There are people who are a lot more experimental and make harsh noise that pushes the limits of what is danceable. Then there are people who like to make music that is very danceable, beat-driven, and arranged. If you go to an Algorave you wouldn’t expect to have one end of the spectrum or other, you will probably get a bit of both.
Over the past few years, we’ve done quite a few shows in London at Corsica Studios, which is a very traditional nightclub space, with a large dark room and a big sound system, as well as more experimental art venues like Iklectik, which is also in London. Then there’s the other end of the spectrum where people do things in a more academic setting. So it’s spread out through quite a lot of places.
My personal favourite is playing in clubs where people actually dance, because I think that’s more fun and exciting than say art galleries, where it’s always a bit sterile. It’s not as fun as being in a place where the space really invites you to let go a little bit and dance. That’s the nice thing about playing in clubs.
Bandcamp recently got bought by Songtradr who then proceeded to lay off 50% of the staff. Traditionally Bandcamp has been seen as an Oasis for independent recording musicians, amid what otherwise are generally considered a series of bad options. Do you have any thoughts on this, especially given that you have released music on Bandcamp?
When I’ve done releases before we haven’t released with Spotify. I’ve only done releases through Bandcamp because as you say, it felt like this safe space for artists, or an Oasis. It was the one platform where artists weren’t held to ransom for releasing their own music. It’s been a slow decline, having been acquired by Epic Games last year. When that happened I winced a little bit, because it was like, well, what’s going to happen now? It felt quite hard to trust that they were going to do anything good with it.
Obviously, it’s hard. I think the solution is for more people to run independent projects, co-ops, and small ventures. Then to find new niches and new ways for musicians to exist and coexist in music, get their releases out, and think of new solutions to support artists and labels. At times like this, it’s always a bit, you know, dampened by this constant flow of like, oh, we’ve got this platform that’s made for artists and now it’s gone, but people always find ways. Bandcamp came out of a need for a new kind of platform. So without it, maybe there’ll be something else that will come out of the new need.
I’m hopeful. I like to be hopeful.
TouchDesigner Meetup: Connecting TouchDesigner with Creative Software
TouchDesigner Meetup: Connecting TouchDesigner with Creative Software
Max Meetup: Algorithmic Composition with AI
Max Meetup: Algorithmic Composition with AI
Competition – Win one year’s free membership to Music Hackspace
Dom Aversano
We are giving away a year’s free membership – to enter, all you have to do is leave a comment on this page about at least one composer or musician who has greatly influenced your approach to computer music.
We want to know two things.
How has their music affected or influenced you?
An example of a piece of their music you like, and a short description of why.
Anyone who completes the above will be entered into the competition on an equal basis (you are welcome to list more than one person, but this will not improve your chances of winning) with the winner assigned at random and announced on Saturday 4th of November via the Music Hackspace newsletter.
To get the ball rolling, I will provide two examples.
Kaija Saariaho / Vers le blanc
I arrived somewhat late to Kaija Saariaho’s music, attending my first live performance of her music two years prior to her death this year, yet despite this, her music has greatly influenced me in the short time I have known it.
Although I have not heard the piece in full (since it has never been released) the simple 1982 electronic composition by Saariaho, Vers le blanc, captured my imagination.
The composition is a 15-minute glissando from one tone cluster (ABC) to another (DEF). Saariaho used electronic voices to produce this. The composition raises questions about what is perceptible. For instance, can the change in pitch be heard from moment to moment? Can it be sensed over longer time periods?
The piece made me question what can be considered music. Are they notes if they never fix on a pitch? can such a simple process over 15 minutes be artistically enjoyable to listen to? what would be the ideal circumstance to listen to such music? I experienced this music partly as an artistic object of study and meditation and partly as a philosophical provocation.
Burial / Come Down to Us
Burial’s idiosyncratic approach to technology gives rise to a unique sound. He famously stated in a 2006 interview that he used Soundforge to create his music, without the use of any multitrack sequencing or quantisation. This stripped-down use of technology gives the music an emotional directness and a more human feel.
I find his track Come Down to Us particularly inspiring. At 13 minutes long it uses a two-part binary form for the structure. The composition uses audio samples from a transgender person, and it was only after a few years of listening that it occurred to me that the form might describe the subject. At 7 minutes the entire mood and sound of the track changes from apprehensive to triumphant, potentially describing a person undergoing — or having undergone — a psychological or physical transition. Released in 2013, this was long before the divisive culture wars and undoubtedly intended simply as an artistic exploration.
Leave your comment below to enter the competition. Please refer to the guidelines above. The winner will be announced on Saturday 4th of November via the Music Hackspace newsletter.