Yuri Suzuki Re-imagines Raymond Scott’s Electronium

Inspired by Raymond Scott’s Electronium machine, Yuri Suzuki’s Digital Electronium gives visitors the chance to input sounds to create a changing soundscape through AI and algorithms. Yuri Suzuki and Pentagram have re-imagined the Electronium - Raymond Scott’s instantaneous performance-composition machine. Raymond Scott was an American bandleader, pianist, engineer and inventor who is widely renowned as an early pioneer in electronic music and instruments. During his lifetime he served as director of Motown’s Electronic Music Research and Development from 1971-1977, and his late 1930’s jazz melodies have been widely heard through Warner Bros cartoons. Scott was the first person to build an electronic sequencer and is widely seen as a forefather of electronic and ambient music.

Suzuki, who has a lifetime interest in the inventions, music and unorthodox methods of Scott, sought to recreate the Electronium as software, and bring to life its counterpoint function through the use of modern AI.

Yuri Suzuki is a sound artist, designer and electronic musician. He explores the realms of sound through exquisitely designed pieces that examine the relationship between people and sound questioning how both music and sound effect the mind. Yuri Suzuki has exhibited his installations and sound artworks around the world.

The Barbican's AI: More than Human (16 May-26 Aug 2019) is an major exhibition exploring creative and scientific developments in artificial intelligence demonstrating its potential to revolutionise our lives. Part of Life Rewired, the Barbican's 2019 season exploring what it means to be human when technology is changing everything.