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Björk and Microsoft Create AI-Generated Music That Changes With the Weather

By Emma Taggart on January 23, 2020

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A post shared by Björk (@bjork) on Dec 6, 2019 at 3:45am PST

Björk is known for her avant-garde, experimental music style, and her latest project is no exception. The Icelandic artist recently collaborated with Microsoft and Sister City hotel in New York to create AI-generated music that changes according to the weather. Titled Kórsafn (meaning “choir archive” in Icelandic), the composition was made using choral arrangements that Björk recorded over the course of her career.

“An architectural structure downtown Manhattan offered me the hand in an AI tango and I accepted the call,” says Björk. “I am alert with curiosity waiting the results. I offered them my choir archives, written over 17 years that will float through the pinball of artificial intelligence by the grid of bird migrations, clouds, aeroplanes and that voluptuous thing called barometer!” Using live footage from a camera installed on the Sister City roof and Microsoft’s AI, the evolving soundscape adapts to sunrises, sunsets, clouds, rain, and even the movement of birds.

As the AI learns to identity new objects and recognize complex weather conditions with more accuracy, the choral arrangements will change over time. “It doesn’t just find clouds, but denotes the density and type of cloud, whether cumulus or nimbus,” says Microsoft. “And it won’t just find a bird, but will also distinguish an entire flock of birds.” Meaning, you can literally “listen to the sky.”

You can watch the NYC skyline and hear how Björk and Microsoft AI interpret it in real time via Sister City’s website.