Performed by Michelle O'Rourke and Ficino Ensemble

Unit 44, Dublin

20 November 2022

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Scene for a New Heritage: Birdsong seeks to play a small part in the development of birdsong in music. It uses realtime machine learning timbral transfer in Neutone, a DAW plugin. Michelle's vocals become birdsong by using the RAVE.bird model, trained on field recordings. The ensemble repeat a sweet, plaintive five bar call throughout.

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The work represents a new stage in the mimetic impulse behind such music. Not an imitation of nature, but an adaptation to a newly hybridised environment.