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Featuring work produced by the sentient database LIVINGSTON, Artificially Intelligent Folk Songs of Canada, Vol. 1 is the culmination of years of research in both Canadian folklore and computer science. What if we had a digital machine that could access the entirety of Canadian folk music and generate new yet hyper-authentic compositions from the source data? Thanks to this exciting collaboration between Canadian song collector Dr. Henry Adam Svec (The CFL Sessions, Folk Songs of Canada Now) and Czech programmer Mirek Plíhal (Všechny Milí Lidé), there is no longer any need to wonder.
An intelligent archive is already an achievement. Yet, LIVINGSTON only produces transcriptions of words and melodies, and so our engineers also needed to put together a band. Fronted by Svec himself and featuring Misha Bower (Bruce Peninsula), Marshall Bureau (Octoberman, The Pinecones), J.J. Ipsen (Hayden, Jim Guthrie), Andrew Penner (Sunparlour Players), and more, these human musicians have breathed life into LIVINGSTON’s brilliantly cold calculations; from rough hollers and stomps to smooth-country croons, from the sparse sounds of the field to the sparkle of Andy Magoffin’s House of Miracles Studio, Artificially Intelligent Folk Songs of Canada, Vol. 1 documents the limits and possibilities of Canadian folksong—a record as wide and as varied as our land and/or the internet.
Download the music for free (or for a small contribution) via www.folksingularity.com, where you can also access tour dates and the FAQ, and stay tuned for Vol. 2 (sung by Olenka Krakus) and Vol. 3 (sung by Mathias Kom).
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Witness Demonstrations
The first volume of LIVINGSTON’s Artificially Intelligent Folk Songs of Canada will be officially released on March 7th, but co-programmer Dr. Henry Adam Svec will be giving a few presentations in the coming months:
# Feb 12th @ Art Bar, Hamilton, ON (in Folk Roots Stew)
# Feb 13th @ Cafe Pyrus, Kitchener, ON (in Folk Roots Stew)
# Feb 15th @ Bicycle Cafe, Flesherton, ON
# Feb 19th @ The Cornerstone, Guelph, ON
Feb 21st @ Raw Sugar Cafe, Ottawa, ON
Feb 22nd @ The Artel, Kingston, ON
Feb 23rd @ Casa Del Popolo, Montreal, QC *
March 6th @ Tranzac Main Hall, Toronto, ON
March 28th @ Forest City Gallery, London, ON (with Olenka Krakus)
# with Jenny Omnichord/ Bird City!
* For March 6th show, Henry will be joined by the Vol. 1 Band
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