29/07/2026
ALBUM OF THE MONTH
MORGAN LUNA
FRANCISCO ZAMORA VEGA
This month’s album of the month is very special; not because of its sonic merits, although the recording quality is high. But because it was never recorded. Puzzled?
The music is pop-infused, soulful blues or bluesy soul-pop – whichever you prefer. The music is remarkable, firstly because it’s truly excellently produced and really gets under your skin. But even more so, because in its production not a single musician has ever played a note, nor has a singer ever sung a single tone. It has been synthezised entirely by an LLM algorithm. Listening tips:
1. You lost me forever
2. You are my Heaven
3. I won’t cry for You
One can roughly work out which musical templates the software was prompted to drawn upon, and yet … the result is unbelievably good. The lyrics come across as though someone with genuine emotional experiences had written them. The music is among the very best that bluesy soul-pop has ever had to offer. … and the voice is simply breathtaking: from a delicate whisper to a brittle, strained tone, everything is imbued with a powerful emotional presence. Perfect down to the smallest detail: the intonation and modulation of the voice match the content of the lyrics perfectly; even the breathing is used to emphasise the emotional significance of the lyrics.
If computer software can produce such good music in such a short space of time, the question naturally arises as to whether anyone will still bother to make real music in the future. It typically takes months to produce an album and costs a small fortune: writing lyrics, composing music, putting together a band, rehearsing the band, and recording in the studio. … and the result is usually an album featuring one or two good tracks, perhaps another two or three decent ones, and a large, uninteresting remainder. Here, however, we have an AI that, with a well-written prompt and a bit of AI processing power, churns out world-class music in quick succession.
This is where the only discernible drawback of AI becomes apparent: after a while, the music all starts to sound very similar. The AI varies a few existing musical concepts ad nauseam. This could be the death of creativity. But even so - when consumed in small doses - the music is absolutely stunning.
The next question then is whether it matters that a soulless piece of software can synthesise highly emotional music so convincingly – something that has, until now, been the prerogative of creative, emotional human artists. Many people listen to music in order to: feel emotions, share human experiences and identify with artists. But what if the artists do not exist, but are fictional? Moreover, AI can produce music that is optimized to evoke certain emotional responses, turning the music into an instrument of psychological manipulation. Of course, that has always been true also of human musicians to some degree, but reaches a new level of perfection with the calculation power of AI.
There is a disturbing element of abuse in all of this. But again: does it matter?
Label: 6723747 Records DK – DistroKid (producer: Francisco Zamora Vega)
Format: PCM 44,1kHz, 16bit
