KEROAÄN is a musical artificial intelligence developed by FRASER/ROSENBERG that performs by implementing XENAKIS’S Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis. This non-standard synthesis is played in real time by the KEROAÄN program. Pushing and pulling between sections of hard noise, singing glissandos, jagged melodic scribble and other sonic curiosities, the program liberates the computer from its position as a mere tool of hyper-productivity and transports the machine into a state of creative and performative being. Operatic in scope, a live diffusion of KEROAÄN features lasers, strobe lighting, and fog synched to both audible and structural qualities of the music as an infinitely morphing chorus of digital voices croon, cry, scream and everything in between.
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Discography:
Keroaän – “Bairal-Jin Similarity” C-10 cassette
dynamic stochastic synthesis with a non-linear distribution. performed without any human intervention whatsoever.
limited edition of 62 cassettes, each with unique audio.
winter campaign 2012
Keroaän – “Daunting In It’s Variousness: First In A Suit Of An Indeterminate Number Of Pieces” - Copy For Your Records hand-stamped fan cd-r // edition of 100.
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Reviews:
KEROAÄN – DAUNTING IN ITS VARIOUSNESS: FIRST IN A SUITE OF AN INDETERMINATE NUMBER OF PIECES (CDR by Copy for your Records)
Keroaän is a musical A.I. program developed by Ian M. Fraser and Reed Evan Rosenberg using XENAKIS’S Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis… Non determinist “music” on a Fixed state machine- tricky… The subject is complex and ‘quite’ large, even to the idea of describing the sounds so produced, more than human / human description, I cant help wonder though i know Heidegger would disapprove, how any Dasein is authentic by nature of biology, a hence human air born auditory systems. This I’m exploring elsewhere, music – should it be limited to human auditory systems? Regardless this is a sound work, though its significance for me is much more in the move into territories outside of the correlationist’s ear. Here using A.I. and stochastics. One criticism (which is a positive generation arising from such work!) I have lies in the ontologies of Stochastics Vs those of k-multicombinations, i.e. multi sets or bags, in simple terms the totality of ‘all possible’ rather than the non totality of probables. Probability has for me a possible emptiness in infinities, which is obvious in my own work. I prefer the pedantic algorithm to the stochastic chimp, though this is not to be seen a pejorative description, the play of probabilities offers much, its potentially an embracing field (it includes Meillassoux’s future God!) and it strikes me as something more in my personal psychology to prefer “bags” to great apes. The whole project is commendable in its openness and the placing of so many themes on the table, it’s a pity I can’t explore more here. Possibilities, probabilities, infinities and time! What we hear is 10 or so slabs of noise and tones, drone like oscillations which rise and fall, the first signs of a colossus. A release which has not only sonic interest, one that should open up a discussion for anyone interested in music or sound art, and one way around or out of any HNW nihilism or correlationist’s circle. (jliat – vital weekly)—————————————————————————-
Wow. Just… fucking wow. This is awesome. Reed Evan Rosenberg and Ian M. Fraser have created a musical AI by “implementing XENAKIS’S Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis.” That means this shit wrote itself. A computer composed this. And this is INSANE. Crazy computer noise that borders on unlistenable, except for the fact that it’s totally fucking listenable. Sounds of all sorts in here, helium struggling to escape from balloons, metal coins scraping against hard plastic, hail storms & train wrecks, avalanches & atomic bombs, DIY prop plane motor whir, NES consoles aflame, ancient computer hardware disintegrating before your eyes, even a brief techno interlude. Absolute aural destruction. Daunting In Its Variousness is a goddamn workout and a half. 100% intense & 200% amazing. And apparently the live show is just as nuts, “lasers, strobe lighting, and fog synched to both audible and structural qualities of the music as an infinitely morphing chorus of digital voices croon, cry, scream and everything in between.” FUCK these dudes need to send their genius computer on tour and hit up Boston stat. (Justin Snow – Anti-Gravity Bunny)————————————————————————-
“…while one can easily admire the skill that went into designing and programming it, there’s little reason to listen to these 19 minutes of, erm, hard noise, singing glissandos and jagged melodic scribble more than once. I might be more inclined to do so if I suspected there was some compositional forethought behind it and if it didn’t sound so god damn ugly.”(Dan Warburton – Paris Transatlantic )
