Superspace – The Muse of the Future: Ki

Since the artificial intelligence set up for her apparently final triumphal march in the form of chat GPT two years ago, the majority of the art and culture scene seemed to be scared and terror. What, so you ask yourself, will be with us and our ideas if the equivalent from the retort will conquer the mainstream? When we feed the machines, who feeds us? And who will be willing in the future to throw a penny after the creative industries when the machines work for Lau?

Maurice Summen and Tom Hessler seem to be unconscious. At least you could think that if you hear the debut album of the two musicians, which was released under the superb name Superspace these days. Because as bleak as the above future scenario – which has long been seeped into the present – appears, so confidently and carefree, the self -titled work of the duo grooves, which is musically somewhere between House, Dub, Minimal Techno and Ambient.

It was created at the interface of man and machine, or more precisely: in the interplay between “cheap AI applications, sinfully expensive vintage equipment and a sample aesthetics reminiscent of the 90s”, as it says in the accompanying information text. Sounds new and exciting at first, but it is only to a limited extent: because the majority of the creative scene have long worked with the AI. But that is mostly embezzled, as it undermines the appearance of the gladly and a lot of conjured up authenticity.

What makes this album special is that the fact that sums and Hessler put the outline working method at the center of their work – and thus also urgent questions about who plays here and hold control over the creative process. In this respect, one can speak of a meta album in the case of “Superspace”, as it addresses and questions itself.

However, this does not reduce the musical added value of the ten pieces. Because far from the philosophical-ethical problems, pieces such as “Superspace Heaven”, “Superspace Feeling” or “Superspace Business” offer the finest electronica-tunes that sound like a sugar-sweet promise of the future from the Sepia-colored past. Sometimes memories become awake of downtempo sounds in the tradition of Nightmares on Wax. In other moments, groups such as Air, Thievery Corporation or Massive Attack at work.

And who knows, maybe you do that too, just over detours. Because somewhere, all the musical ideas that have dragged on sums and Hessler from the AI applications must come. What you can undoubtedly write – in addition to your own musical contribution – is to have fed the machine with the right commands. This is the creative muse of the future.

Is that still utopia or already dystopia? The question is in the room. Anyone who thinks about it will best be “super space” in the future.

Superspace: »Superspace« (Fun in the Church)