At The Crossroads He Met an A.I. [Robert Johnson Simulator Suite] – eNuminous & Archimedes (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

A.I. and its effect on creativity, art, and job security were the hot topics of 2023. And such discussions should be had early on in its development. After all, the Luddite machine breakers of the early 19th century weren’t anti-technology; they were anti-starved to death due to unemployment. But, I would argue that all we are talking about is a new technological tool and, like any tool, it is how it is applied which is crucial; it is the end, good or bad, to which the user strives, which is the defining aspect. Again, an analogy. A loaded gun never killed anyone until a human picked it up. So, if big corporations and governments misuse it, that is the technology’s fault.

But for every worried thought about the future, there is a potential to create something brilliant, innovative, experimental, engaging, revolutionary even. And that is what the wonderful eNuminous & Archimedes has been doing for several years.

At The Crossroads He Met an A.I. [Robert Johnson Simulator Suite] is, perhaps his/their/its most direct application of A.I. towards music creativity. Many albums made under this name are combinations of made and manipulated music, found sounds, and artificially generated sonic art. Here, we see him allowing A.I. to reinterpret an already existing musical premise in its entirety. Cover bands and tributes have been doing it for years, although admittedly, they stick closely to the original script by their very nature. Here, man and machine work in unison to build something new on top of the old. This truly is the sound of music moving with the times….and the technology. And why not? If Mozart were alive today, do you not think he would be locked in his studio with a bank of synths creating electronic music for big Hollywood film company bucks? You know he would.

So, At The Crossroads, He Met an A.I. [Robert Johnson Simulator Suite] is an album influenced by Robert Johnson, reinterpreted by eNuminous & Archimedes and orchestrated by A.I. The results are fantastic.

Across six elongated tracks, mind and software take his spirit and overwrite it with all manner of music, often predominantly classical or orchestral sounding, piano-led and delicate, but not always the case. Parts of Neural Networks of the Mind bristle with epic, Wagnerian sound score cinematics; Dead Shrimp Deresolution, at 30 plus minutes, almost an album in its own right, wanders between busy and buoyant piano and classical grace and Up Jumped the A.I. runs from grand piano cascades and otherworldly sonic washes. Things end with Simulation Blues, the sound of non-human intelligence capturing the inherent melancholy and outsiderness of the genre, the same charisma and mournfulness that was found in the music of Johnson and his contemporaries but relocated the creation of that music to other locations, perhaps the sound of a lonely computer amusing itself on an abandoned space station or the music of a deserted shopping mall on a distant planet.

The music here is excellent. It is odd, in a brilliant way, challenging, challenging, avant-garde, experimental and unique. But the critical aspect is different from here, but what it represents. In the same way that rockers got upset when disco and synth music came along, music which they saw as being in some way fake, eNuminous & Archimedes gives us a glimpse of one possible future path, a place where art and A.I. can work in unison, shows us a whole new set of tools for the music creators kit, suggests a whole new range of colours for the artist’s sonic palette. You can choose to ignore it, but that doesn’t mean that it is going to go away.