BUY THE ALBUM HERE.
ABOUT THE ALBUM : Almost Human
( Released 12/2020 )
ABOUT THE ALBUM:
From Chris Moon, MoonSoundStudios, the studio that discovered, produced and wrote the first hit song for Prince comes the worlds first A.I. Solo Piano Album - featuring music written, composed and produced entirely by artificial intelligence without human intervention throughout the entire creative process.
Believing that A.I. will more and more predominately intertwine into our lives, it seemed appropriate to mark in time exactly where A.I. is when judged from a human creativity perspective. We thought about doing an album filled with instruments all composed by A.I. but deemed it more revealing to only use a single instrument and what better to evaluate such creative expression than a piano.
ASK YOURSELF THESE 3 QUESTIONS:
Listen, judge for yourself and ask the following questions:
- Could you be fooled into thinking some or any of the provided arrangements and performances could have been done by a human?
- Do you hear or feel emotion in the any of the compositions?
- Does the music sound sterile and mechanical or do you sense human qualities emerging from the machine as it seeks to emulate the human quality of expression and art?
HOW THE ALBUM WAS CREATED:
Over the course of the last year an A.I. computer was given the following 3 starting parameters from which it had to then completely arrange, produce and complete a finished musical composition.
1) the speed or tempo for the song (slow, medium or fast)
2) the key of the song
3) the duration/ length of the finished song.
Given these parameters, the A.I. would generate the song in under one minute, fully completed.
Over 5,000 different and original songs were created using this process.
The completed songs were then listened to individually, judged by humans, with the best 27 being selected for inclusion on this album. Why 27, because an average large album has 10-12 songs and we wanted this release to be double what you would normally have to provide a large enough sampling for a listener to come to a valid judgement of the music created.
The first 15 songs are SOLO PIANO.
Songs 16 - 27 have additional instrumentation as we allowed the computer to add other instruments IF IT WANTED TO. This allows you a greater range and selection of music while also being able to evaluate the A.I. ability to construct more complex music.
THE PRICE - WHY ONLY $2.00 FOR 27 SONGS:
The cost for the entire 27 songs will be made available to the public for only $2.00 for the entire album since there is no artist to pay, it doesn't seem fair to charge more (and A.I. doesn't eat much, it just needs a little A.C.). So we hope you enjoy this uniquely musical expression and find the results as curiously interesting as we did.
All rights reserved, (c) 2020, Chris Moon - Publishing by Magnum Opus Music
LISTEN & PURCHASE HERE:
ALBUM CREDITS:
This album was made possible due to the generous efforts and support of the following individuals and companies:
Concept & execution - Chris Moon
Co-producer - Lord Sterling Moon
Executive producer and art director - Dona Moon
Co-executive producer - Brandon Bailey Johnson
Co-executive producer - John Rivers
Executive technical support - Howard Moon
Executive wellness - Denis Thompson
In-house support - Colt Thompson
Final mix and mastering - JoDell Playmaker Music
Cheveux - Rhone Thompson
Clinical oversight - Ryan Moon
High definition audio playback system - Higherfi.com
Core monitoring - NTT Audiolabs
Software control systems - ProTools
Medical oversight - Dr. Wendy Bond
Technical integration - Aiva Logic
Criaturas - Chloe Thompson
PRESS RELEASE - From Prince to A.I.
Chris Moon discovered Prince and literally gave him the keys to the Moon Sound recording studio in Minneapolis, back in 1976. Since then, Chris has continued to make music with a number of notable artists, including Morris Day, MC Hammer, Alexander O’Neal, Cynthia Johnson (Funkytown) and more. And now, Chris is making music with no (human) artist at all, using A.I.-artificial intelligence.
Moon developed and directed a project which used an Artificial Intelligence program to completely produce musical compositions based upon 3 parameters:
1) Tempo (slow, medium, fast)
2) Instrumentation (solo piano predominated, but others were orchestral)
3) Duration of the finished piece (average length was 2 minutes)
The program would then compose, arrange, play and record each piece, without any additional human interaction. During 2020, Moon had the A.I. program generate 5,000 musical tracks at Moon Sound Studios in Ft. Myers, Florida. Moon evaluated each individual composition, and collected the best into an album, now featured at www.MoonSoundStudios.com. Of the 27 cuts, 15 are solo piano; the rest feature additional instrumentation.
“Going into this production I had very low expectations of what A.I. would be able to create, especially on an instrument as revealing as a solo piano,” said Moon. “You can’t fake it with piano. I doubted A.I. would be able to create even 10 reasonably musical original tracks and that even if it did - they would all sound the same. Thankfully, I was wrong.”
Moon found that many of the compositions were highly-expressive, in a way normally considered human. “I never would have believed it if I hadn't heard it for myself,” said Chris. “I started wondering to myself if it was possible A.I. could ‘feel’ at some level, because it seemed I was hearing something real being expressed.” As a lifelong audiophile and longtime broker of higher-end audio gear, Moon monitored and mastered the recordings over state-of-the-art audio equipment, including Wilson Audio Maxx II speakers and NTT Audio Lab speakers, to ensure highest quality sound.
A sample cut can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhPDRc8TnqI&feature=emb_logo
Chris Moon may be contacted by phone at (952) 440-2226, noon to 8pm, Eastern Time.