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‘Mothership’ by Mason Bates

 

This is absolutely one of my favorite pieces of computer music.  Mason Bates, the composer of ‘Mothership’, is a famous artist who integrates technology with music.  This particular work uses synthesized sounds of multiple aircraft to create an alien sound of a mothership.

Mason Bates has to record and transfer those recordings into sound files that could be embedded into his laptop. Though the mechanical sounds were not computer-generated, he still had to edit a lot of the sounds to make it the way he wanted it to sound.

I was inspired by this piece and Mason Bates because it perfectly balances out the computer-generated sounds and the melodies and harmonies of the orchestra. Many times, computer generated music would be too heavy on either the tech side or the orchestral side, often clashing with one another. I think this piece is a great use of both.