Valerio Velardo shares his journey from classical pianist to AI music engineer, researcher and entrepreneur. He discusses the development of Melodrive, the first real-time adaptive music engine for video games, and the growth of The Sound of AI, a thriving ecosystem with over 9,000 members.

Throughout the conversation, Valerio delves into the role of open source in AI music, the limitations of current AI music models, and the potential of neuro-symbolic integration for music creation. They also explore the future of AI-generated music in interactive content, the relationship between AI and human creativity, the role of AI in music education, and the ethical considerations of copyright in generative music.

Valerio Velardo is an AI music engineer, entrepreneur, and researcher with a passion for the intersection of AI and music. He builds AI music products and startups, consults in the AI music space, and helps companies hire and form AI teams. He founded Melodrive, the first AI music engine for generating real-time video game soundtracks, and later sold the company in 2020. Valerio also runs The Sound of AI, a YouTube channel and community with over 9,000 members, offering education and consulting services on AI music. Currently, he's writing The AI Music Revolution for UC Press.

Learn about how AI mimics human creativity by selecting and combining impression molecules and answers to the question “is there anything unique about human creativity that AI can't capture?”

Dr. Esther Fee Reinhardt is an expert in AI and sound. She studied computer science and musicology at the Julius-Maximilians-University in Würzburg.

She completed her doctorate at the International Audio Laboratories Erlangen. Her research focuses on timbre analysis in audio signals using feature-based approaches and optimized artificial neural networks.

As an improvisation coach and composer, she is intensively involved with human creativity and relates this to the current mechanisms underlying hypothetically creative AI systems.

In this episode you can expect to learn about how AI can be used in live improvisation and the frontiers of musical AI tools such as Dicy2.

Jérôme Nika is a researcher and electronic musician specializing in generative technologies that foster creative interactions between humans and machines. With an educational background from Télécom ParisTech and ENSTA ParisTech, he’s studied acoustics, signal processing, and computer science applied to music at Sorbonne University. Awarded for his innovative contributions during his PhD at IRCAM, he blends technology and art. As a permanent researcher at IRCAM since 2020, Nika collaborates on numerous artistic projects, continuously pushing the boundaries of digital music creation.

“..After the concert, as we received applause, I closed the piano lid, and from that moment, I decided never to play classical music again.”

In this episode we get to know phd student Alessandra Bossa. We talk about her hybrid instrument, using body presence in performance and making the sound “untraceable”.

Alessandra Bossa is an electronic artist from Italy active in the duo O-Jana. She’s also a teacher and phd student at UiA.

Multiinstrumentalist og komponist Ola Kvernberg forsøker å beskrive hva en AI trent på han selv ville hørtes ut som og forteller hemmeligheten bak en slick bakoversveis i denne episoden.

Ola Kvernberg startet sin musikalske reise som seksåring og har siden da utviklet seg til en sentral figur i jazzmiljøet, med en imponerende rekke utgivelser og samarbeidsprosjekter. Han har mottatt flere prestisjetunge utmerkelser, inkludert Spellemannprisen og Amandaprisen. Hans album, "Steamdome II: The Hypogean", vant Spellemannpris i kategorien alternativ pop/rock i 2021.

I denne episoden snakker vi om hvordan det er å være både backingmusiker og artist og vi får høre historien om da Julie flyttet til Oslo for å være frilanser, samt hvordan det er å spille i Beat for beat bandet.

Julie Falkevik Tungevåg er keyboardist, sanger, gitarist og komponist født og oppvokst i Sogn og Fjordane - nå bosatt i Oslo. Hun har en mastergrad i utøvende rytmisk musikk fra uia .

Hun er en allsidig musiker og kunstner, og i tillegg til å jobbe med sine egne prosjekter Falkevik og Du og jeg og vi 2 - 3 - 4 jobber hun med mange ulike artister, musikere og prosjekter. De siste årene har hun jobbet med artister som Erlend Ropstad, Ingebjørg Bratland, Maria Solheim, Ine Hoem og Hans-Erik Dyvik Husby. Hun har også jobbet som teatermusiker ved Kilden Teater- og konserthus, produsert flere album og skrevet filmmusikk.

Julie er også å finne som fast medlem i bandet i Beat for Beat på NRK.

In this special episode you’ll hear a shortened version of a panel discussion that took place in Kristiansand the 24th of May, in conjunction with Martin Clancy doing a keynote for CreaTeMe. The panel discusses copyright, ethics, music production, music culture and more.

The panel consists of:

Ragnhild Brøvig is a professor of popular music studies at the Department of Musicology and at RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion at the University of Oslo, Norway. She’s the author of the books Parody in the Age of Remix and Digital Signatures: The Impact of Digitization on Popular Music Sound.

Daniel Nordgård is a former guest on this podcast, he is a professor of music business and management and the author of the book “The Music Business and Digital Impacts.”

Kristine Hoff (UiA alumni) is known by her stage name MAUD. She is an artist, vocalist, and producer.

Elise Bygjordet is an artist and student in the Department of popular music and is part of CreaTeME’s innovation team, focusing on AI.

Martin Clancy works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and music, with a focus on ethical AI. He is the founder of AI:OK, the chair a Global AI Ethics Arts Committee, and a Social Policy Fellow at Trinity College. Clancy is the author of the book “Artificial Intelligence and Music Ecosystem” and has also had hits on the US Billboard charts.

The panel is moderated by Steinar Jeffs

Intervjuet tar for seg hvordan Jonas Sjøvaag bruker teknologi i sitt arbeid. Han diskuterer viktigheten av feil og uventede resultater i kunstnerisk skapelse, og hvordan han bruker AI som et verktøy for å generere nye ideer og innfallsvinkler.

Musiker, komponist og grafisk designer Jonas Howden Sjøvaag er kjent for sitt arbeid med Epletrio og Carl Seglem Acoustic Quartet, og han har en mastergrad i improvisasjonsmusikk fra Norges Musikkhøgskole. Han holder nå på med en ph.d. i kunstnerisk utviklingsarbeid ved UiA.