The embattled National Public Radio in the United States happily (in spite of draconian funding cuts) still pursues intelligent discussions on a huge variety of relevant issues present, past, and evolving. Such is the case with a recent series of discussions (some shorter, some longer) that have focused on AI generated music. Of course the primary genre in these discussions is that of “pop” (read “economically viable”). But what of all the music that makes no money? Like mine, lol, but they make me happy.

My point here is not to denigrate NPR, rather to append a perspective on my musings about new classical music and AI. Since I am hardly an expert on this, all I can reasonably do is provide an interesting example that I have stumbled upon.

OK, this is probably my first encounter with AI in music, at least as far as I am aware. It is an album on Bandcamp by a friend of mine. Henry Lowengard is a musician, actor, instrument builder, programmer, hacker, and performer. He was interviewed by another friend of mine who has a radio program out of Kingston, New York. Here is the fascinating program that aired last year in which program host Peter Wetzler interviewed Mr. Lowengard about this album.

Peter is a composer, pianist, and a driving force in the arts community that is Kingston. His weekly show features music from all times and all places. He frequently plays new music and has introduced this writer to a great deal of music.

So, to the album at hand. Give it a listen. It’s a fascinating album that puts this listener in the mind of composers like Ken Nordine, Robert Ashley, Pamela Z, Charles Amirkhanian, and Laurie Anderson. Not that other listeners will have the same experience.

Give a listen to that broadcast in which Henry talks about how he made the album. That helped me to grasp what was going on. It reminded me of the free floating improvisational texts that comprise Ashley’s operas, in particular, Perfect Lives. The pieces on Lowengard’s album are stream of consciousness. But whose consciousness? Henry’s or AI’s?

Apparently, Henry uses various programs and programs via the large language model of AI. His commands instruct it to produce some kind of music with some kind of texts. He is not actually writing the music or the texts. Rather he is asking AI to interpret his very linguistic ideas to produce both text and sound.

This album surely has its antecedents but, in many ways it also sounds like nothing I’ve heard before. If you like creative experimentation, give this a listen. It is but one incarnation of AI non-pop music. I doubt it will crack the Billboard charts but it made it into my listening queue and I’m glad it did.