9 Curious Musical Compositions Created by Science and Technology

Musicians are often renowned for their creativity, but what about the technology that makes it all possible? Science has influenced music in many ways, from generating new sounds to helping musicians with composition techniques.

For example, the group They Might Be Giants used astronomical data to create their song "Why Does the Sun Shine?" from their children’s album Here Comes Science.

1. The Lost Tapes of the 27 Club

The Toronto-based organization Over The Bridge teamed up with Google’s AI programme Magenta to create new tracks by artists who died at the age of 27. The four songs — created to sound like Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison — are a part of an effort to raise awareness about mental health support for musicians.

The project uses music-programming AI algorithms to study the sonic archive of each artist, extracting their “hooks, rhythms, melodies and lyrics,” and then composing them into new songs. The resulting recordings “evoke the technological uncanny” that Mark Fisher describes as sonic hauntology’s defining feature.

While this sort of technology is often used by mainstream music companies to remonetize back catalogues, it’s also being utilized by the underground scene. For instance, Dadabots, a music-programming duo, recently produced a album called Coditany of Timeness13 by training their custom-designed neural network on the Krallice album Diotima14.

2. They Might Be Giants

They Might Be Giants (abbreviated TMBG) has been delighting a cultish following with their alt-rock songs since songwriters John Flansburgh and John Linnell formed the band in 1982. Their knack for deadpan silliness wrapped in a catchy musical package won them college audiences and, later, MTV viewers.

After their debut, they released a series of low-budget tapes on their own Bar/None Records label before landing a contract with Elektra. The band's first two LPs, their self-titled 1986 release and 1988's Lincoln established the group's college rock cred. But it was 1989's Flood, the album that cracked the pop charts, that cemented their omnivorous, only-half-kidding style into mainstream consciousness.

TMBG has made innovative use of technology throughout their career, starting in 1992 by sending their news updates via Usenet newsgroups. In 1999, they were the first major artists to release a full-length album exclusively on eMusic's digital subscription service. They also worked with McSweeney’s, writing a song and an album of forty-four tracks for a CD that was included in the literary journal.

3. Bjork

While Bjork’s musical compositions rely on acoustic instruments and electronic synths, she has also worked tirelessly to embrace the latest technology. In fact, her most ambitious effort as a capital-P Producer is Biophilia, a suite of songs turned into apps and accompanying educational workshops that explore the intersection of nature, music and science.

While Homogenic used acoustic textures to evoke rocky landscapes, Vespertine relied on clean, often gentle melodies. In addition to enlisting Icelandic woman’s choirs and sampling the sound of feet pressing into snowy terrain, she tapped into an array of impromptu collaborators including Timbaland, baobab troupe Kokono No 1, and chamber-pop songwriter Antony Hegarty. The album’s lack of bass also presented structural challenges, keeping it from falling into mawkish minimalism or lazy laptop-music prettiness. It also pushed Bjork further into a curatorial mode, crafting her own production methods from the best of each artist’s. This open-eared approach continues on her most recent release, Vulnicura, which features turntablist-esque vocal experiments and drone maestro The Haxan Cloak’s mixing.

4. John D. Boswell’s Symphony of Science

John Boswell, a music producer from Bellingham, Washington, has been called “the most famous musician you’ve never heard of.” That’s because unlike many musicians, Boswell doesn’t work for fame or notoriety. Instead, he’s driven by a desire to introduce others to the world of science. His projects, including the popular YouTube series Symphony of Science and Terra Lumina (which mixes smooth beats with Carl Sagan lectures), are designed to make science more accessible and entertaining.

In the Symphony of Science series, Boswell pitch-corrects clips from popular science education programs and interviews with scientists and scientists’ advocates to create mashups set to musical melodies. The series has featured appearances by scientists and science promoters such as Richard Feynman, Morgan Freeman, Stephen Hawking, Michio Kaku, and Neil deGrasse Tyson. In addition to Symphony of Science, Boswell has also created a new musical project called Terra Lumina with Will Crowley. The music on this project has a different feel than that of Symphony of Science, but it still conveys a sense of wonder and the beauty of the natural world.

5. Artificial Intelligence

Many musicians and composers now use AI to create music for their videos. This is because generative AI can produce music quickly and easily, which saves time for artists. It can also help them find new musical ideas and inspirations.

For example, in the past few years, musicians have been using software like Google Magenta and Sony’s Flow Machines to compose songs. These programs allow them to select the key of the song, specific instruments and beats per minute to make it sound the way they want.

Despite the positive aspects of this technology, it is raising some ethical concerns. As it becomes more common, there are worries that it will replace human composers and musicians. This is especially true for people who produce background music for ads, movies and other video productions. This could cause a lot of problems with copyright and ownership issues. Also, it could change how we view music as a form of art.

6. Artificial General Intelligence

AI is being used in a variety of musical applications, including creating songs and soundtracks for visual media. But some critics worry that the use of AI in music creation could lead to an over-reliance on technology and a dehumanization of art. In addition, there are ethical concerns about ownership and copyright, as well as the impact of AI-generated music on the job market for musicians and composers.

One of the biggest challenges for AI-generated music is producing motifs—repeated musical patterns that create form and meaning. However, an Idaho State University computer scientist has developed a new AI system called Pop* that can create melodies and lyrics independently of human input (1).

The system has been used to compose music in the style of Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, which the composer abandoned after writing only two movements shortly before his death. Despite the limitations of this model, it’s an impressive step forward for artificial intelligence in music composition.

7. Climate Change Music

Whether Billie Eilish is rapping about “dying fish” or a new wave band’s anthem for environmental consciousness, the climate movement has tapped into a hunger among some musicians for music that makes concrete changes. Of course, no songwriter is under any illusion that their pop tunes will reverse President Trump’s climate denial or change people’s disposable plastic habits. But that doesn’t mean a few good songs can’t help.

Lucy Jones is a seismologist focused on climate change who’s also a classically trained musician (many scientists are). She used global surface temperature data to create a musical score that reflects the speed at which the Earth’s warming.

It’s a new sub-specialty of music known as data sonification, and it’s one way of bringing scientific data into the musical realm. Other composers have incorporated natural sounds into their work, with acoustic artists using buzzing insect drones and field musicians weaving frog calls and rainfall into bucolic electronic music that some call electrica selvatica.

8. Artificial Superintelligence

Scientists and engineers are finding ways to turn scientific data into music that is both intriguing and uplifting. For example, physicist and composer Dr. Domenico Vicinanza spliced together 37 years of data from NASA’s Voyager space probes into a musical composition. He also created a system that turns electromagnetic signals from the aurora borealis into music—sounds that can be played on a flute!

Another way science is being used to create music is with generative AI. This technology allows musicians to collaborate with machine learning algorithms. It gives them new ideas for melodies and rhythms to inspire their creativity.

This has led to a number of interesting projects. For example, a company called Endel uses music to help people concentrate or focus on tasks. Its system collects information about the environment, work habits, and sleep to create a personalized sound experience. The result is an innovative use of artificial intelligence to improve our lives.

9. Taryn Southern

A former semi-finalist on American Idol, Taryn Southern has since earned a reputation as an artist and storyteller whose work explores the intersection of emerging technology, storytelling and human potential. She’s created an award-winning virtual reality (VR) series and an upcoming AI album, as well as the world’s first tokenized song that allows hundreds of people to collaborate on music and share backend royalties through Ethereum smart contracts.

For her album I AM AI, Southern worked with the Amper Music artificial intelligence platform to compose the songs. She describes it as being a powerful tool that augments the work of musicians rather than completely replacing it. She also works with other platforms like Google Magenta and IBM Watson Beat.

The result of the collaboration was a single called “Break Free.” Though it is composed entirely with Amper’s software, bits of the original music peek through here and there — but they serve as seasoning, not the main dish.