Wow, incredibly surreal, amazing experience for my orchestral piece "Exoplanets" to be augmented with lighting during performance by Sinfonieorchester Basel, not to mention expert narrations delivered by the festival resident scientist @henrylegg.bsky.social. Looking forward to sharing video soon!!
An amazing evening yesterday narrating a composition by Rob Laidlow ( @robertlaidlow.bsky.social ) about exoplanets as part of the Interfinity festival in Basel.
Making sure we will get it out there*
Definitely making sure we will make sure we get it out there one way or another. If not directly with LPO label (waiting on that decision) then it's also possible to work with another record label to license their fabulous recording from them and release
In Switzerland for European perfs. of "Exoplanets" with basel symphony Orchestra and Interfinity festival. Director warned me the rehearsal hall is cold "like an exoplanet". didn't realise it was an immersive experience - forgot my bag of crushed quartz and big fan! @stellarplanet.bsky.social
Wow, amazing!
Happy 6th birthday to Ada our silly and wonderful four legged friend
Screenshot of the link and search referred to in the post: ECDF in Jazz & Popular Music, Lecturer in Music for Screen Education (Academic Education Pathway), Lecturer in Music History, Lecturer in Performance (Academic Education Pathway)
🚨FOUR jobs in Music🚨 @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social
Early Career Development Fellowship in Jazz & Popular Music (2 yr): deadline 31 March
18C Music History (permanent!), Screen Composition (18 mo), Performance (2 yr): deadline 12 March
Search "Music": www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs
⭐ 'As we enter a world of countless interactions with AI in all manner of our daily lives, I think it's important to study this relationship and explore what works.'
Composer Dr @robertlaidlow.bsky.social has recently joined King's and our department as an AI+ Fellow. Discover his research ⬇️
Thanks!
You'd be surprised at what we can do with 4 meters of copper wiring and a transistor
We recorded this in July with Jack Sheen so its great to have it out there. Thanks to the BBC Philharmonic for commissioning along with the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin who will premiere it in Berlin in October. Hear it, Radio 3, from Saturday
@cyborgsoloists.bsky.social
(7/7)
The second movement is a cadenza for the "Stacco" instrument, invented by @nicolaprivato.bsky.social and Giacomo Lepri at the @ii-lab.bsky.social in Iceland where I spent a week with Nicola and Victor Shepardson creating new latent space audio models based on the orchestra's archive. (6/7)
It's a real journey, especially the third movement which goes on a tour of hundreds of my own formative sonic memories merged with the archive of the BBC Philharmonic. (5/7)
The electronics and new instruments are spun out of this rich archive - it’s an audible rejection of the notion that new technology simply can’t function without scraping every piece of music online, whether the creator wants you to or not. Instead we respond to that specific group (4/7)
The orchestra granted me access to their archive of recordings which Zubin explores, melts down and reconstructs in many ways. (3/7)
"TECHNO-UTOPIA explores human music-making in the age of algorithms and how making and listening to music constructs what it means to be human. It stands against modern techno-utopianism, which reduces culture and music to merely data, and at the same time offers alternative - positive - futures for how new technology might unlock new forms of artistic expression (at least, for me). It is also a highly personal piece, particularly the third movement which is comprised of a patchwork of hundreds of musical quotes, samples and memories from my own life – a dataset a computer could never understand, no matter how powerful it is. In the first movement, "In My Image," the soloist wields sonic "commands" that progressively transform the orchestra's music into uniform algorithmic patterns. Here, I was thinking about the tendency of algorithms to erase anything they don't understand, homogenising human experience into something "learnable". The second movement features "stacco," a newly-developed adaptive instrument which responds to the orchestra on stage. The stacco captures the last moments of the first movement, and the soloist uses it to fragment, destroy and reconstitute orchestral sounds. This section is both human and non-human; this highly non-human instrument is controlled, physically and expressively, by the soloist manipulating it with their hands. "Everything I Have Ever Heard Is Just Data," the final movement, challenges the notion that AI can truly understand music. The music is collaged from approximately 200 personal memories - pieces of music, field recordings, fragments of conversation. I wanted to write something celebrating the fact that our connection with sound and music extends far beyond data. The orchestra performs alongside samples from its own past recordings, blending my own memories with those of the musicians, ensemble and audience."
This piece was a long time in the making, and features Zubin performing on piano, synthesizers and newly-developed adaptive instruments. "TECHNO-UTOPIA explores human music-making in the age of algorithms and how making and listening to music constructs what it is to be human." (2/7)
This Saturday my 35-min concerto "TECHNO-UTOPIA" for Zubin Kanga and the BBC Philharmonic will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 New Music Show! Catch it live or for 28 days after. (1/7)
Sounds SUPER
Wow! What's the astrophysics inspiration?
just sent out my January newsletter! news, performances, talks etc coming up
if you're interested in following what I'm up to, you can sign up with this link
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indeed, it would be deeply ironic and counter-productive were the policy to be enacted by an algorithm judging what is or is not entirely bottom-of-the-barrel AI generated...
pleased to see Bandcamp making some effort to protect its users from the monotonous, time-consuming, slog of trying to work out what's (not) human art
Hopefully, this policy is curated by humans and won't negatively affect the many artists experimenting creatively with machine learning in cool ways
Thanks, Ray. Brilliant to see you on Saturday and to work with you on many aspects of the science. Fingers crossed it might be broadcast or released publicly another way, so your colleagues in other countries can listen too!
Thank you Hannah - absolute pleasure to work with you and see you on Saturday
AMAZING first performance of "Exoplanets" by @lporchestra.bsky.social this weekend. Huge thanks to all the players, conductor Ed Gardner, my scientific collaborators and interlocutors and the many friends and family who came to see it. Next performance in Basel (with added lasers/light show!)
Last night I had the pleasure of attending the world premier of The Exoplanets, by composer @robertlaidlow.bsky.social , done by the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall. It was a smash hit, thrilling and beautifully executed. To me, it was evocative of a very big Universe with lots
This weekend we headed to London for the world premiere of @robertlaidlow.bsky.social’s #Exoplanet suite. The London Philharmonic Orchestra were on fine form bring the amazing worlds we study to life. So grateful to have been a tiny part of the journey. Check out Rob describing the piece 👇 #sciart
Amazing book - congrats on the new piece!
In this video I explain how @stellarplanet.bsky.social and @climatebook.bsky.social research into these classes of planets inspired and informed some of the music.
The concert premiere of "Exoplanets" is at 7.30pm on Saturday 29th November at the Royal Festival Hall in London - tickets here: