Russian Artist directs a 12 Robot Orchestra

Yes you read the headline right, Russian artist and composer Dmitry Morozov has been working on his robotic endeavors for several years and has now come up with a 12 piece Robot Orchestra that he personally conducts. The project is called Nayral-Ro and the "musical" sounds are derived from scientific algorithms. The robots performances are then controlled by hand movements made through a motion controller.

The result of this technological wonder is not exactly what you were hoping for, at least not yet. For anyone that remembers dial-up internet from the 1990's, you'll definitely recall the sounds your modem made when connecting you to the internet. The combined result of the this robot orchestra sounds a lot more like a Modem Symphony than a musical piece. What Dmitry Morozov has created so far is an elegant way to direct and conduct a dozen machines playing what I'll call "bits and bytes" music. While it's not exactly pleasing to the ear, it is a step towards eventually being able to have a human conduct multiple robot musicians performing a musical piece we'll recognize and perhaps someday enjoy.

We originally came across Dimitry and his Nayral-Ro project in thie article: Muse.org - Russian-Artist-Conducts-a-Robot-Orchestra/. Check it out and you'll be able to listen to the sounds of his latest creation.

The obvious question now is, are we ready for a robot orchestra? Are we ready to have human musicians replaced by machines?? I hope the answer is a resounding no, however I fear the future on this topic has already been written. I'm all for technological advances, but when it comes to expressing human feelings through music and art, I don't see how machines however well programmed can compete with the human heart and soul. We'll check back in from time to time on advances in this field and we'll see where it's going. Hopefully they will find a way to retain the human element in futuristic machine performances of music.

Wow I can't believe it was 12 days from my last blog post, we are really slacking :) Actually we've been working very hard on our Keep Music Alive Mission and looking for stories for our upcoming book "88+ Ways Music Can Change Your Life". If you'd like to learn more about mission and how you can contribute a story or quote for the book please visit www.lovesongs.com/KeepMusicAlive. Have a great day and we'll be back soon - sooner than 12 days this time :)

Music, Love & Laughter

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Creating a Children's Musical Paradise out of Trash

You may already be familiar with this story but I just heard about it last week. It was discovered in 2010 that there was a very poor community in Paraguay that has its own childrens orchestra. That's not even the most amazing part. ALL of the instruments being used in the Orchestra are being made out of recycled materials: TRASH, GARBAGE as in all the stuff you and I throw away. Apparently this little town in Paraguay mostly exists because it has been chosen as the landfill location for all the surrounding areas. So trucks and trucks of trash come in every week and many residents and children earn there poverty level wages by walking through the huge mounds and picking through the trash. Along the way someone got the beautiful idea of creating musical instruments out of these materials AND then to start teaching the children of the community how to play them. Trust me when I tell you that you will not believe the sound of this orchestra when you see and hear them.

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Originally dubbed "The Recycled Orchestra", this amazing band of musicians plays violins, violas, cellos, basses, percussion, clarinets, flutes, almost every instrument imaginable in an orchestra (I'm looking for the brass instruments now, I'm sure they are there). I just can't believe how good this children's orchestra sounds and to think they are making this beautiful music with what was once someone else's trash is just incredible. The very best part of this is how learning and playing music has made these children so much happier, more relaxed and more self-confident in their lives. They will be forever changed because of what music has given to them.

A documentary entitled "Landfill Harmonic" is currently being filmed and the story has been featured on many major news outlet including CNN, CBS, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, New York Magazine, Oprah Magazine and NPR. The children and their instruments have also begun to take trips to other countries where they perform and are very well received. Here is the news story by CBS that first brought this amazing phenomenon to my attention: CBS News: The-Recyclers-From-Trash-Triumph There was also a Kickstarter campaign that ended about a year ago that helped raise funds for finishing the documentary. This page has a lot of very useful and interesting information about the orchestra and the people that originally and continue to make it possible: Landfill Harmonic Kickstarter - Campaign has ended but excellent info on the project And here is a link to their documentary which hopefully we'll be coming out soon: Landfill Harmonic The Movie

Lastly here's a YouTube clip showing the orchestra and a little more background information:

So lets ask ourselves: If children from one of the poorest area's of the world can create beautiful music out of nothing more than other people's trash, then we all can do incredibly amazing things using nothing more than the power of music.

Please share your comments and feedback below - Would love to know your thoughts on this wonderful story.

Music, Love & Laughter,

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

p.s. KEEP MUSIC ALIVE Day #2 - Visit our first post from Tuesday July 1st for more information about our mission