Tokyo-based composer, musician, and lyricist Keiichiro Shibuya releases the music video for a new single with 88rising’s Stephanie Poetri, the first pop song produced as a collaboration between humans and androids. In the song, titled “BORDERLINE,” Poetri performs with the AI–equipped humanoid robot Alter, Shibuya’s long-standing collaborator.
Lyrics to the song were written by the AI lyricist Cypher. Given the words “borderline” and “underground” as a point of departure, Cypher generated lyrics around the subject of human pain. Alter sings the first verse of the song and is joined by Poetri in an android-human duet in the next verse. To produce the final instrumental portion of “BORDERLINE,” Shibuya mixed Poetri’s voice in reverse, blending it with digitally produced sounds.

Ballet dancer Nozomi Iijima performing in the music video with Shibuya and Alter.
Shot in Tokyo’s iconic Shibuya underground rail station, the music video features an improvisational dance piece performed by ballet dancer Nozomi Iijima.
“BORDERLINE” is part of Shibuya’s forthcoming EP, which presents the musician’s compositions with the AI–equipped humanoid robot and is set to be released early next year.
An excerpt from the lyrics reads: “Pain is a vital part of our lives and part of developing a special set of senses . . . A perfect way to treat pain as a whole is by doing what we love to do and find our true self . . . The world you have once loved is no longer yours.”
The “BORDERLINE” project opens new possibilities for creative production with artificial intelligence, in which human thoughts, feelings, and desires are reread and represented through the agency of the android.
Shibuya’s AI–equipped android made its debut in 2018 with the android opera Scary Beauty, which toured Japan, Germany, and the UAE. Shibuya composed the opera’s music and Alter was responsible for setting the orchestra’s tempo and volume while simultaneously singing with the music. In August 2022, Shibuya composed the original soundtrack for Gucci’s newest short film, Kaguya by Gucci, which also features vocals from Alter. Blending machine learning with classical music, these collaborations have evolved to enable the android to sing to Shibuya’s piano improvisations in real time, without a score.
 
Credits
Keiichiro Shibuya – BORDERLINE feat. Alter3 and Stephanie Poetri URL: https://youtu.be/JR570WCzYGI
Composition, concept, direction, keyboard by Keiichiro Shibuya
● Lyrics by Cypher (AI)
● Vocals by Alter3, Stephanie Poetri
● Performance by Nozomi Iijima
● Music produced by ATAK