Yuri Suzuki Releases ‘The Welcome Chorus’ LP
Featuring artwork by Matt Willey, the LP creates beautiful music from sounds captured during Yuri’s installation at Turner Contemporary.
Yuri Suzuki’s new LP ‘The Welcome Chorus’ recently launched at an event in Margate.
The LP is released on Yuri’s MSG label and is a collaboration between Yuri and fellow Pentagram partner Matt Willey, who designed the artwork. Arranged and produced by Hughie Gavin and featuring Margate’s Social Singing Choir, the record celebrates Yuri’s recent sound installation at Turner Contemporary which brought together sound, sculpture and artificial intelligence.
The outdoor installation featured twelve brightly coloured horns, each representing a district of Kent, which continually sang lyrics generated live by a uniquely trained, site-specific piece of AI software.
The record beautifully merges the real with the artificial into an anthem created by AI using the voices and words of over 3000 people. The A side presents the original AI sound files created by the algorithm, and the B side presents the choral arrangements by Hughie Gavin with the Margate Social Singing Choir. The two sides share the same MIDI data and lyrics but highlight a beautiful contrast between human and AI voices.
The LP artwork and accompanying poster feature a circular motif which references the horns from Yuri’s installation at Margate, seen from straight on and in profile, and there are 12 dots representing each of the 12 horns. The inside sleeve features handwritten music, echoing the fascinating contrast between the human and the AI elements.
The vinyl LP and digital download are available to purchase from Bandcamp now.
