Fully Automated Luxury Composition
Very interesting generative music piece with a companion essay all about how music in a utopian society might present itself and how music plays a role in societal shifts and what sort of form this would take that might open up to the possibilities of a utopia with some cheeky stabs at capitalism and what it does to modern pop music.
Written by Paul Wolinski of 65Daysofstatic, thought it might be of some interest to Citizen Scientists 
I used to have one of those robots!! 
I still have one of those robots somewhere around here
The timing of my reading this…feeling the gain on so many levels, the music and the colours in all my silent thinking just exploded.
An essay of response may one day emerge from reading that of Mr Wolinski after following your link but right here right now, thank you, for this much appreciated post.
Me too! Its a sign!!!
sign of Emily taking OVER!!!
Loved reading the article and essay included. Reminds me of the concept of ‘Intuitive Music’ by Karlheinz Stockhausen. I find it hard to describe an Utopia in general, let alone in music, but it sure left me with some thoughts about it.
Generative music is an interesting concept, but I feel it comes with limitations as well. It implies a composition created ‘for’ me, limited by the technology used. For a computer, AI or any ‘composer’ to create a piece of music that ‘fits’ me, it requires knowing me, feeling me, understanding me. Sure enough we have advanced technology at our disposal, which we can feed ‘biased’ information, to create a piece of music for us. However, what defines us is in my opinion much broader than what any piece of technology can currently comprehend. I certainly agree for that matter with Wolinski’s conclusion about the implied limitations involved.
Another thought I had is the fact we all have our own personality, we all differ, or do we? What does that mean when it comes to Utopian music? Can a perfect composition only exist for a single individual? Can it only exist when specific requirements are met, a single moment? Dang, I am probably over-thinking this way too much, but with the notion of Utopia, I just can’t help but think about ‘musical enlightenment’, almost like searching for the meaning or understanding of life itself. Does music have to be perfect? What does Dystopia sound like?
Very interesting, many question and thoughts. Sure makes me think about the ‘sound of the future’. Especially with technological advancements being made in Computers, AI, Bionics, Cybernetics, and more…
I’ve tried experimenting with generative music a few times over the years but every time I find a texture and sound I like that I’d like to program to generate ambient nonsense with I always find the song within and end up building around that initial spark, more or less the approach Paul discusses.
I think that’s always going to be the way, no matter how good generative music becomes, the artist will always have that pull to dig in and help create. I don’t see generative music replacing human composition outright but it’s a fantastic companion tool, especially if you just want someone to jam with Have had many good jam sessions with some very interesting generative music VSTs and programs