STEPHANIE LAMPREA and ALISTAIR MacDONALD, Ecstatic Visions

People often criticize AI in music because, in addition to the fear of displacing work for musicians, many say it can’t equal the emotional depth of works created by human beings. Another point is that it’s focused on formulaic content that lacks real world experience and the soul that makes genuine music so compelling.

Those making that argument may just rethink these generalities – and understand the value of AI in specific contexts – when they wrap their intensely curious ears around Post-Singularity Songs, a multi-movement suite of six pieces penned by young British composer Robert Laidlow that both concludes and creates a fascinating centerpiece for the Ecstatic Visions, the aptly titled second album by visionary musical soul mates Stephanie Lamprea (soprano) and Alistair MacDonald (electronics).

Also a researcher dedicated to exploring the intersection of classical music, advanced technology and AI, Laidlow – previously the PhD researcher with the BBC Philharmonic – is the perfect artistic match for the duo, who feature four other transcendental works designed to explore everything from creation myths (think the AI version of Genesis), feminine vocal potentialities and the role tech can play in bringing exciting new sonic realms to life.

In addition to the epic Laidlow production, Ecstatic Visions includes Angélica Negrón’s Letras mysterious and ambient Letras para cantar (featuring the poetry of 17th Century Spanish nun Juana Inés de la Cruz; MacDonald’s heart-enveloping six-piece title suite, commissioned for the Glasgow Cathedral Festival and driven by Hildegard von Bingen’s 12th century writings on gemstones and visions; Ellipsis, Wende Bartley’s hypnotic meditation on the three phases of the moon, used as metaphor for the three archetypes of women (virgin, mother, crone); and Eric Chasalow’s brief, visceral and emotionally charged The Fury of Beautiful Bones, which draws on Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Sexton’s vulnerable confessional poetry for inspiration.

The Post Singularity Songs – beginning with the surreal fusion on “Creation Myth 1’s computerized/monotone fast voices, spacey tech beeps and soaring, richly human soprano flights – are presented as a set of artifacts and stories from a universe where AI has reached a techie tipping point from which there is no return. Exploring how beings in such a realm might experience consciousness, creation myths and even love, Laidlow utilized a custom poetry-generating AI called GPT-Pyron and conversations with a “worldbuilding AI” to formulate much of the text.

For English Lit majors – and aficionados of 19^th and 17^th Century poetry – it might be an engaging challenge to listen through all the wild sonic intricacies to see if they can discern that the verbiage is woven with the poetry of Emily Dickinson and John Donne. The narrative includes the avant-garde extravaganza “Creation Myth 2: The Kingdom of Dust and Decay,” the haunting “Love,” and another creation myth (subtitled “Pyron’s Return” on its way to the brief but dramatic coda “Storyteller Unpearls.”

Excavating for soul-stirring gems among the other pieces on Ecstatic Visions is a fascinating adventure, slightly jarring at times, other times flowing and intoxicating and leaving us full of wonder, grace and gratitude for Lamprea and MacDonald’s wide scope chemistry and creativity. Opening with uniquely modulated textured sacred vocals (perhaps in Latin, maybe a new language?) and then cinematic, skyward synth wanderings, “Letras para cantar” features three voices recorded by Lamprea with fixed media. The poetry of Sor Juana, often described as “The Tenth Muse,” is known for its complex, sometimes intimate and often forbidden verses. Known for incorporating non-traditional sound-makers, such as toys and robots, along with traditional instruments and electronics, Negrón is the perfect match for the duo’s keen sensibilities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXM8BAOtoPo

From “the fiery life”’s whispery, soft spoken spoken word recitation (enhanced by the glorious sounds of the Glasgow Cathedral’s Great Bell and Lamprea’s pure soprano) to the rich extended operatic exploration of “Hoc Verbum effabricavit,” MacDonald’s title suite features the writings and visions of 12^th Century mystic Hildegard von Bingen amidst a kaleidoscopic flow of electronically generated illusions. Some of the movements are modern arrangements of Hildegard’s original antiphons.

A ritualistic exploration of feminist consciousness and spiritual empowerment, Wende Bartley’s Ellipses has traditionally featured highly specialized vocalizings, including a specifically tuned “vocal fry” that spans a wide range. Performers use resonance chambers in the head and nose (think bel canto) and Italian vowel shapes to pitch these sounds with precise breath support. Considering the way it artfully mixes the deep rooted, live presence of a singer with disembodied pre-taped media, it’s not surprise that Lamprea has described the vocals as “terrifying and intense” – yet she nails them as if they’ve been part of her soul and artistry forever.  

Lamprea offers what is perhaps the collection’s most divine presentation of her vocal range and emotional potential on “The Fury of Beautiful Bones,” a brief but impactful work by Eric Chasalow written in 1984 as part of a larger song cycle called The Furies. Featuring live vocal performance with electronic manipulations, including spoken text and synth sounds, his setting mines the complexity of loss and love, and the endurance of the body and memory by personifying the human skeleton. Its source poem of the same name found Anne Sexton addressing the reality of the body while contrasting the fragile truth of emotion with the unsettling and enduring nature of the bones.

Lamprea and MacDonald have performed at the Glasgow Cathedral Festival, Centre for the Contemporary Arts (Glasgow), Inspace (Edinburgh) and Stereo (Glasgow) and were commissioned by the Edinburgh Futures Institute and Glasgow Cathedral, co-creating the works Soroche and AD 1136.