Oracle Song
Oracle Song
Initiated through Sound and Music’s New Voices programme, this multi-part vocal performance uses sound, music and language to explore the human connection with non-human species. A staged presentation of the music was presented at the Barbican Pit Theatre in March 2025, as part of FuelFest.
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Composed through dialogue between a neural net and a vocal ensemble, the project imagines a form of inter-species communion, through creation of a hybrid human/animal vocality. This unique sonic encounter connects listeners to an expanded understanding of non-human life and intelligence, and the intimate sensation of our precarious co-existence.
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The project responds to the crisis of species extinction, and engages with the processes of machine learning as a way to playfully broaden anthropocentric narratives of intelligence and inter-dependence.
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In 2022/3 Melanie partnered with PRiSM Lab (Practice Research in Science & Music) Manchester, to develop material using their neural net. This music was tested in Manchester, in collaboration with:
Benoît André
Peyee Chen
Adey Grummet
Kate Huggett
Rosie Middleton
Robin Morton
Melanie Pappenheim
Edmund Phillips
Héloïse Werner
and
Michael Betteridge - music facilitator and conductor
Sam Salem - project mentor
Bernie Whittle - project producer for Fuel
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Read a blog of Melanie’s journey with the neural net here.
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Oracle Song at the Barbican was performed by:
Melanie Wilson
Sarah Dacey
Adey Grummet
Rosie Middleton
Melanie Pappenheim
Kate Whitely - Music Supervisor
Grzegorz Staniewicz - Production Sound Engineer
Project producer for Fuel - Caitlin Gleeson
The project is produced and co-commissioned by Fuel.
Sound and Music’s New Voices 2020/21 is funded by Arts Council England, PRS Foundation and Garfield Weston Foundation.
Composed through dialogue between a neural net and a vocal ensemble, the project imagines a form of inter-species communion, through creation of a hybrid human/animal vocality. This unique sonic encounter connects listeners to an expanded understanding of non-human life and intelligence, and the intimate sensation of our precarious co-existence.
The project responds to the crisis of species extinction, and engages with the processes of machine learning as a way to playfully broaden anthropocentric narratives of intelligence and inter-dependence.
In 2022/3 Melanie partnered with PRiSM Lab (Practice Research in Science & Music) Manchester, to develop material using their neural net. This music was tested in Manchester, in collaboration with:
Benoît André
Peyee Chen
Adey Grummet
Kate Huggett
Rosie Middleton
Robin Morton
Melanie Pappenheim
Edmund Phillips
Héloïse Werner
and
Michael Betteridge - music facilitator and conductor
Sam Salem - project mentor
Bernie Whittle - project producer for Fuel
Read a blog of Melanie’s journey with the neural net here.
Oracle Song at the Barbican was performed by:
Melanie Wilson
Sarah Dacey
Adey Grummet
Rosie Middleton
Melanie Pappenheim
Kate Whitely - Music Supervisor
Grzegorz Staniewicz - Production Sound Engineer
Project producer for Fuel - Caitlin Gleeson
The project is produced and co-commissioned by Fuel.
Sound and Music’s New Voices 2020/21 is funded by Arts Council England, PRS Foundation and Garfield Weston Foundation.
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