Artificial intelligence (AI), like in the rest of our lives, can now be found in every corner of the music industry. From analysing music listening behaviours to creating personalised playlists, to evaluating which songs are most likely to be popular with music consumers, it is everywhere.

But what if machines could also write the music that you listen to? In this experimental concert, we will present a set of original pieces created by a team of composers, computer scientists and researchers using AI algorithms that are now being used across the world to create music with machines. These algorithms analyse large corpora of music written by humans and learn to compose new music in different music styles. We will explore how the choice of these corpora and the intervention of humans in the AI composition process affect the music that machines create and the implications it has in terms of authorship and copyright.

Four new pieces that have resulted as the outcome of this exercise will be performed live: two inspired by Schubert’s 'Die Forelle' and the other two by a new piece commissioned to the Liverpool-based band Stealing Sheep: Just Data.

For more information about the project, and to follow its progress, visit the Applied Music Research Lab website.

This concert will last approximately 50 minutes.

Part of the Lunchtime Concert Series and Musical Futures.

Musical Futures is an annual series of concerts and events that explore the future of music-making, digital creativity, and new ways to perform, experience and interact with music.

(Image generated by Midjourney AI)