Thumbs up for the virtual band
the new computerised soul of music
In the 60′s when you would tell Ringo Starr, Charlie Watts, Mitch Mitchell or any of those guys that one day lots of people would prefer to dance to the beats of a drum machine they would laugh at you, right?
As we all know this turned out to be reality. We’re dancing to computer beats. Playing a perfect beat. This is a different beat though than one played by my favorite drummer Bernard Purdie. But even that kind of playing gets automated nowadays. I guess no music fan is able to tell the difference between a robot and a human being these days.
Artist != Robot
Somehow many people have always believed – they still believe – that art can not be automated. I believe this is not true. Making people dance is art, but computer beats are causing the same effect. The thing is: we’re dancing, we’re reacting to the beats. It’s us, not the machine who creates the dance. And how many movies have you already seen with artificial effects like explosions? Maybe movies with artificial animals which look real too. That’s not a form of art? What’s next, artificial actors? Of course it is!
Some time ago I became aware of the work of Francois Pachet who is creating a Virtual Band using software. The guy is a genius and a great musician. Have…
