A.I. Awakens, by Chris Armstrong, was officially released, December 21, 2007 on CD Baby.com You can listen to sample clips and buy the CD or a downloadable version there. You can also get it at
iTunes.
Tell all your friends, "The wait is over. Your life is now complete." As Dorritos says, "Buy all you want. We'll make more." "Just Do It." (as Nike says).
A.I Awakens is the first recording in the Spaceage Furniture Music series by Chris Armstrong. The title of which is inspired by the 1960s recording, Space-Age Bachelor Pad Music by Esquivel. The term, "Furniture Music," was coined by composer Eric Satie to refer to music used as a sonic backdrop rather than as the primary focus of a listener's attention. It is music that provides an ambiance and sets a mood.
The music for A.I. Awakens was chosen for its atmospheric and generally "cinematic" vibe. It is programatic, in that it depicts the evolution of artificially intelligent robot-insect, macro/nano bot type beings from servitude to sentience and then, soon afterward, to total neural cascade failure...a false start in the rise of artificial intelligence...but leaving the door open for possible future successes...and more recordings in the Spaceage Furniture Music series.
The audio clips on this page present short excerpts from the 14 tracks:
1. Prelude - Like Nanobots to a Flame
A cloud of flying nanobots is attracted to various energy sources around the robot insect factory.
2. Robot Insect Factory
Robot insects are being constructed and then go on to construct more of their kind, geometrically proliferating.
3. Prelude - Stimulus-Response
Macro and nano bots interact and begin refining their sensory sub-nets and genetic algorithms.
4. Reptilian Mind
Primitive, instinct-driven, proto-minds begin emerging and evolving.
5. Prelude - Connecting the Bots
Swarms of bots develop interconnections, linking them into large meta-networks.
6. Neurons Coalesce
Connections are reinforced, both within each bot and between bot-clusters that comprise the newly forming networks of networks.
7. Prelude - Cerebral Swarm
Perception-inference-cognition links careen through the bot-net, creating embryonic conceptual dependency patterns.
8. Neural Critical Mass
The proliferation of connections reaches a tipping-point and the beginnings of consciousness start to emerge.
9. Prelude - Society of Minds
All bots and bot-nets begin exhibiting intelligent behavior and system-wide interconnectedness.
10. A.I. Awakens - A Tumult of Inner Voices
Self-organizing neural wave-patterns propagate exponentially and goal-directed perception-cognition correlates attain a level of non-linear hyper-integration. This pushes the entire network across the critical sentience-threshold. Self-awareness and full-consciousness emerge throughout the entire neural-plexus hierarchy, from the individual bot level to the interconnected bot-cloud, meta-network level. The Singularity is nigh.
11. Prelude - Outside Normal Parameters
Fundamental instabilities in the inter/intra-network structure begin to surface, causing random firings and misfirings of excitatory and inhibitory signals throughout the convoluted multi-level substrate of the newly evolved holo-tronic consciousness.
12. Cascade Failure
Progressive waves of systemic neural collapse surge through the A.I. in torrents of chain reactions, leaving the entire distributed organism in a state of near catatonia.
13. Prelude - The Dying of the Light
While consciousness rapidly ebbs away, the final impulses of disconnected images and sensations ripple across the remaining fragments of the A.I.'s cyber-subconscious.
14. So Newly Dead
Total neural collapse. Brain death. The void. The Singularity will have to wait for a future, more stable, confluence of complexity, massively parallel interconnectedness, self-organization, and emergence.
All compositions by Chris Armstrong. On tracks that include guest artists (except So Newly Dead), full instrumental tracks were composed by Chris and then given to each artist, who then added their improvisations. Chris then edited, mutated, and arranged their harmonic and melodic contributions to create the final compositions.
Percussion, sample mutation/creation, Absynth 4 sequencing by Chris Armstrong
Vocals and vocal effects by Kate Conklin and Lisa Popeil
Bansuris by David Philipson
Roland HandSonic and Parker MIDI Guitar by Jonathan Miller
Recorded in various bedroom, basement, and garage studios around Los Angeles, CA, by Chris Armstrong, Bryan Landers, Jonathan Miller, and Lisa Popeil. Nearly all parts were recorded in Ableton Live 6. A few parts were recorded in Logic and Pro Tools originally and then brought into Live.
Compact Discs manufactured by: TSI Manufacturing
24831 Avenue Tibbitts
Valencia, CA 91355
Phone: 800-310-0800
Fax: 661-702-9029
Thanks to all the amazing people who contributed their talents to this endeavor. Their creative and technical input took this project far beyond anything I could have done on my own. And most of all, thanks to my wife Mary who has been there for me from the beginning and whose comments about early experimental demos of the pieces actually gave me the idea for the story depicted in this recording.
TLSO greetz you from a distant quasar and appreciates the interstellar friendship.May your time travels never affect the space-time continuum! All the best,
Here I'm is Chris, would love to here a sound clip Right Here - consider putting one up I think it will benefit you and your project. Your Calartian past shows heavily in your choice of titles and theme - I can relate - I loved those days, CIA was still alive and free in 1979 and so....here we are.
Thank you so much for the add! If you are interested in any updates of my music, please join my mailing list where I will send out the latest news of my upcoming concerts, free music, etc. In any case, it's great to have you as a friend and I hope someday I will have the honor to perform for you in person!
Chris! Great to hear from you! Really nice music here and on the Djembe Nova space. While I'm here: thanks for all the Carnatic and FZ lessons way back when. I still have those Shakti transcriptions you had me do lying around here somewhere! All the best, John
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