Many artists dig deep to experiment and push the boundaries of what it means to be a creative musician. In this technologically advanced society, some have delved into new forms of art with the latest electronic innovation. Here, Holly Herndon is leading the pack of technological adventurers with PROTO. For this, her third studio LP, Herndon looks to take a leap into the future, by conducting an ensemble of both human and AI voices. Working with long-time collaborator Mathew Dryhurst and developer Jules LaPlace, Herndon created an AI system called “Spawn”, which manipulates sound and learns on its own.
The concept of PROTO seems a beautiful one: human animal and non-human machine working in tandem in a glorious choir, fronting the notion that in this unnervingly fast-advancing AI-driven society harmony can be achieved through agency and integration. Unfortunately, the album fails to promote such positive results. Many intriguing moments are short-lived and soon it becomes all too uninteresting. The second track Alienation introduces itself with promise, as electronically-ornamented vocal lines sit on top of striking synth sounds. But soon the song starts to drag repetitively, as the sheen of new-electronica wears off and the sound becomes unpleasant. Similar happens on SWIM, with a sci-fi soundscape becoming less and less alluring with every listen.
Amidst the layers of technology, this record makes great stretches to sound human with the eerie choral a capella track Canaan and the near-tribal Frontier. In the latter, the intro leads a powerful vocal choir into a heavy disjointed beat, where an effect-laden voice takes the centre. But again the song rolls on repetitively. Both songs, while trying to boast an air of grandeur with loud choir sounds, sadly are a bore.
It is such a shame that an album of such pioneering bravery can be so off-putting. Although there are flickers of beauty throughout PROTO, it is not enough to excuse the otherwise jarring or uninteresting content on the record. It seems Herndon is keen to make music conceptually alluring first and foremost. Collaborator Mat Dryhurst, before selling the concept of Godmother as “an illustrative piece of music for where the tech is at,” said: “[this track] is obviously a really ugly piece of music, but that was the point.”
While the addition of AI is not all to blame here, it is worth noting the fact that many human traits are absent on PROTO – the kind of human expressions that strike an emotive chord with the listener, e.g. flaw, fragility, humility. There’s an eerie sense that in wanting to be forward-thinking, to cooperate too much with technology, music has taken a dull and lifeless turn.
Elon Musk warned us all of AI. That we must slow it down before it gets out of hand. Now, this album is not going to start firing off nukes (or worse, lock you out of your iPhone!) but there’s a worrying feeling that maybe the draw to this AI-collaborative music will neglect the very thing that makes us human.