It is a reminder of just how powerful music can be when you delve into songs like ‘To Live Unaffected,’ the new single from Christ and the Machines. Even the band name points to an exploration between the intangibility of faith and the very real nature of technology. (Although, of course, a wider reading of the word machines in today’s world takes us into equally metaphysical territory.)
Get on with it! Sorry, right….
‘To Live Unaffected’ is a gorgeously sweeping and emotive slice of…well, alt-pop? folktronica? cinematic indie? Who knows. What I do know is that it is a fantastic bit of soundscaping, wandering from delicate, half-seen sonic watercolour hues to rousing, vibrant and immersive oil-painting sounds. It is a suitably optimistic sound for an optimistic message, reinforcing that even in our darkest moment, hope can be found, and that love will be there if you look in the right places. In its starkest terms, it tells us there is always a reason to carry on. A sentiment that the modern world has never needed so much.
But beyond the poignant message, ‘To Live Unaffected’ also explores the role of AI in music-making, with Christian Licursi, the man behind the project, bringing together his musical talents and software know-how to make music at the hybrid collision point of humanity and machine.
Is AI just another musical tool for the modern artist to use (or perhaps abuse)? Is it not the case that it is not AI itself that is the problem that many see it as, but, like any tool…or perhaps weapon, for is not music a creative weapon… the way an artist wields it? Even a gun is just an object until used with intent.) Remember sampling and synths and the dawn of the digital world; the electric guitar, even the saxophone and piano, were seen in their day as the harbingers of the creative world descending into something lesser.
AI in creativity is about how you use it. I would argue that if an artist uses such tools to enhance music and make something this beautiful, this thoughtful, this intelligent, this poignant, and powerful, and poised and purposeful…bring it on.
