In one my previous posts, I talked about "seperating performance from recording". In it, I discussed the digitization of an actual performance, such that you can simulate a recording - say a piano piece by Thelonious Monk - and replicate it on a real piano (If this doesn't make sense, you're not alone. It's something that's hard to explain with the current lingo in music. So go check the other blog post). Today's post is a similar endeavor, but with an even more challenging task - a robot that can not only simulate a player, but improvise over live music.
This can be done of course, by the fact that music - even improvisation - follows a set of general rules. Yet the fascinating thing here, is that the type of improvisation can be programmed to be characterized as different real life artists. As the video explains, Shimon (the name of the robot) can programmed to be "30% artist A, and 40% artist B, and the rest something else". At the same time, it is able to react to real time input by the musicians Shimon is playing with! That's an amazing technical accomplishment!
Of course, this makes me ponder the same question as the other post: Would you truly enjoy this music? Would it somehow "cheapen" it? Does it even matter?
And here's a full performance:
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