The latest iteration of pop music’s post-human future is soon to debut, thanks to composer David Kant’s ensemble Happy Valley Band and five years spent performing software-transcribed versions of pop standards for the group’s first album, ORGANVM PERCEPTVS. The experimental new release is set to premiere February 24 through Indexical.
The project is described as “the Great American Songbook heard through the ear of a machine… a deconstruction of popular music through the use of state-of-the-art machine listening technologies” in which “custom-built computer software written by bandleader and composer David Kant ‘unmixes’ recordings and transcribes them into musical notation” which The Happy Valley Band performs. The press release further notes:
Ultimately, it’s about exposing the biases of machine hearing algorithms and raising the question of intellectual property when it comes to training an algorithm to recognize — and eventually replicate — structures and patterns in material owned by an individual.
ORGANVM PERCEPTVS features delirious and discordant reworkings of such classics as “Like a Prayer,” “Suspicious Minds,” and “Ring of Fire,” performed by modern experimental and avant/garde luminaries. For a list of guest performers and further information on the album, check out Indexical’s release page.
In the meantime, embrace the dysfunctional joys of pre-release streams for the ensemble’s takes on “Like a Prayer” and “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World,” along with a glimpse at the full tracklisting, below:
ORGANVM PERCEPTVS tracklisting:
01. Like a Prayer
02. Ring of Fire
03. Jungle Boogie
04. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
05. Crazy
06. Suspicious Minds
07. It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World
08. After the Gold Rush
09. In the Air Tonight
10. This Guy’s in Love with You
11. Born to Run
More about: Happy Valley Band
