In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, the protagonist Elizabeth Bennet often walks with her sisters through the countryside to the fictional town of Meryton—an ideal occasion to let her mind wander. While the novel doesn’t convey Bennet’s musings, this idea was the trigger for a text written by Barbara Adler for the double album A Walk to Meryton, which combines electronic composition and improvised wanderings. Since 2015, Arne Eigenfeldt has been working with Musebots, systems that generate music in various ways. For this album, these Musebots have come up with dreamlike melodies and sound tapestries, a groundwork for meditative improvisations by three Vancouver-based musicians, trumpeter John Korsrud, violinist Meredith Bates, and saxophonist Jon Bentley. Weaving in and out of their thoughtful lines, Adler’s melodious reading describes the observations of a person traversing a landscape on foot—both what she sees and the thoughts and imagery it evokes. These elements form a thoughtful whole, indicating that AI systems don’t necessarily negate creativity, but may function as a springboard into the imagination.
René van Peer is a music journalist from the Netherlands. He writes about improvised and contemporary composed music, world music, and sound art. He also writes program notes for several Dutch venues, such as the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in Amsterdam. Leonardo and Songlines have published his articles and reviews. Het Apollohuis published his book Interviews with sound artists. He is artistic adviser for composers, ensembles and festivals, and is a member of the music committee of a major cultural foundation in the Netherlands, the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.