We’re long overdue for some updates on Carolan and related explorations of guitars, music and technology. Today, an update on our ongoing exploration AI folk music project (see post 114, 118 , 122 and 125). We recorded and released on Bandcamp an EP of three experimental tracks under the name ‘Saorga‘. These feature a combination of AI-generated and traditional folk tunes, performed by a combination of AI (meolody) and human (guitar accompaniment) musicians.
The Glitch was composed using the FolkRNN tune generator from Bob Sturm and team, but then performed live using our LOERIC system, passing through a series of settings from relatively tight playing between human and AI, before gradually descending into a much looser and wilder improvisation of timing, dynamics, ornamentation and errors.
The Road Less Travelled is an interpretation of the traditional tune The Mountain Road, performed by the same human-AI duo. It features Loeric being configured to improvise some wide variations in tempo in response to how the human is playing, leading to an unusual and, to our ears, somewhat non-human musical effect.
Encounters is a set of three AI-generated tunes, Close Encounters of the Reel Kind, The Fonserannes Staircase and Ping the Kvetch, this time played in a comparatively straight style and featuring our good friend Andy Inns on the bodhran.
Encounters
Launch
Royal Society
Live video
Reflections
Originally posted at https://carolanguitar.com/2025/03/30/127-saorga/
Horizon Digital Economy Research, University of
Nottingham Innovation Park, Triumph Road, Nottingham,
NG7 2TU
horizon@nottingham.ac.uk
