Reiko Yamada
composer & sound artist
Of Randomness and Imperfection artistic research project (2020 - ongoing)
An interdisciplinary research project in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Maciej Lewenstein (ICFO, Barcelona)
Randomness has attracted great interest in the field of music composition for quite some time. As early as 1962, Iannis Xenakis started exploring a stochastic approach to randomness by using computer-based interlinking probability functions to determine compositional structure, pitches and their durations. Soon after, composers and music technologists started to explore randomness with various methods of algorithmic compositions, sometimes with the help of artificial intelligence. However, in most cases, the source of randomness they used was in fact deterministic in nature. That is to say, the random numbers that they employed are imperfect in the strict sense (simply put, perfect random numbers never have repeating patterns). Moreover, the method in which they produced such randomness was extrinsic to the method in which randomness was applied. In this project, we attempt to take a further step by directly producing sound events from the genuine quantum true randomness of quantum physical systems. Through this method, we aim at achieving a new sense of aesthetic effect in music which derives from the true randomness that prevails in the natural quantum world.
EVERYTHING YOU FIND HERE IS STILL WORK-IN-PROGRESS
A succession of timbres deriving from quantum randomness originating in Rabi-oscillation
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sampling_g0p25_o1_d0
sampling_g0p25_o1_d0 reverse
Here are timbres deriving from classical randomness for reference
Research Paper
IJMSTA - Vol. 3 - Issue 2 - July 2021
ISSN 2612-2146
Reiko Yamada, Samuele Grandi, Gorka Muñoz-Gil, Luca Barbiero, Albert Aloy
and
Maciej Lewenstein
Concert Presentation
SONAR Festival AI&Music S+T+ARTS - Interpreting Quantum Randomness
October 28, 2021
CCCB Barcelona, Spain
Concept by Reiko Yamada and Maciej Lewenstein
Prepared and performed by Ángel Faraldo, Andres Lewin Richter Osiander, Ilona schneider, Barbara Held, Artur Majewski, Vasco Trilla and Reiko Yamada
photo by Alba Ruperez para Sónar Festival
Digital Album
Released on May 6, 2022 from Phonos netlabel and available on bandcamp. A limited number of vinyl will be released soon!