This article was originally published in Turkish in Manifold on 3 February 2018. It can be accessed here.
From artificial sounds to processed vocals, this playlist is a journey through soundscapes consisting of tones so indistinguishably human-like. It is also a selection of contemporary pieces that are examples of modified sounds being used as tools for the expression of personality and alter-ego. If we dive deeper than the more familiar auto-tune vocals into these soundscapes, what can creativity in the age of modern technology allow artists and sounds to achieve?
I would like to mention a few songs and artists that shaped this playlist. The starting point was the recent work of musician, composer and sound artist Holly Herndon (now Dr. Holly Herndon). She recently completed her PhD in composition at Stanford University, in addition to working on computer and music technology. She and her collaborators created an artificial intelligence named Spawn, who then produced the song Godmother, released on December 2018. Spawn, who is just a baby AI, listened to the works of Jlin, another musician and collaborator of Herndon’s. It then tried to reconfigure what it heard using Herndon’s voice to create Godmother.[1] The most striking statement for me from Herndon regarding her continuing experiments is as follows: “In nurturing collaboration with the enhanced capacities of Spawn, I am able to create music with my voice that far surpass the physical limitations of my body.”[2]
Then came the track Lifespeed, from an album that has probably been one of my most listened albums of 2017, Superlative Fatigue, the work of experimental electronic musician Errorsmith (Eric Wiegand). At first listen, the song seems to feature actual human vocals or vocal samples, but those sounds you hear are created by RAZOR, the digital synthesiser manufactured by Errorsmith.[3] The result is joyful and satisfactory. Errorsmith wanted the tracks on this album to be a little ridiculous, and that intention comes through, especially during the first half of the album.
While I was contemplating these artificial human sounds, I wanted to include use of vocals, the union of electronic tracks and the performance of the artist as a manner of manifesting an alter-ego or an expression of self. I tried to combine examples like the amorphous being of Xen, who is an inherent part of Arca (Alejandro Ghersi) as seen in its physical form in various videos, or the confusion generated around topics of gender and existence by SOPHIE’s initial releases, specifically BIPP, which was released at a time when SOPHIE was intentionally anonymous, and again the modifications SOPHIE applied to her face in her videos from last year, presenting a version of herself that was maybe shaped according to the sound selection she creates. PCMUSIC products (A.G. Cook, GFOTY) where vocals, maybe the most significant part of any pop song, are in a way rendered anonymous or parodic, Japan’s beloved pop star Hatsune Miku, created with the synthetic sound software Vocaloid and performs via an holographic avatar and finally, anonymously developed virtual popstar/Instagram model Lil Miquela are some other artists included in this list as instances of various approaches to and interpretations of ‘popular music’ which I think has an ever-changing scope and definition. In short, this is a compilation of tracks that fall under the theme of imitations and manipulations of human sound, which also includes songs that I think have a similar audio-quality or thematic intention. Happy listening.
[1] For more information: GODMOTHER – HOLLY HERNDON AND JLIN (FEAT. SPAWN)
[2] Ibid.
[3] Errorsmith: Creative at the Source. “On the new album even the vocal-like sounds are all done with RAZOR, which has a vowel filter.”
[4] While this article was being prepared for publication, I received an e-mail advertising AI: More Than Human, an exhibition starting on 16 May 2019 at the Barbican Centre that focuses on artificial intelligence, its history, its effects on the future of civilisation and human-AI relations/boundaries. The e-mail also included a playlist that accompanies the exhibition’s introduction, which consists of similar tracks. If you would like to discover more tracks on the subject, please try this playlist.
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