In anticipation of Keiichiro Shibuya’s first album of android opera, “ATAK027 ANDROID OPERA MIRROR,” scheduled for release on Friday, February 21, the second single, “BORDERLINE,” is now available for streaming starting, Wednesday, January 15. This track was originally created as electronic music with AI-generated lyrics during the GPT-2 era, long before the advent of ChatGPT, but has since been re-arranged for the android opera.

Amid the delicate interplay of Shibuya’s piano and strings, which resonate with a fantastical quality, the android begins singing, “Pain is an essential part of our lives,” and concludes with the words, “The world you once loved is no longer yours.” This piece embodies the concept Shibuya has centered his work on since his 2012 vocaloid opera “THE END,” featuring Hatsune Miku and devoid of human presence, which seeks to dissolve boundaries between life and death, humanity and technology.

The orchestration, including the symbolic motifs performed by the strings, was created entirely through software simulation rather than human musicians. The only human-performed element in the album—Shibuya’s delicate piano—stands as a metaphor for humanity confronting the end of the world.

Digital Streaming Platforms

CREDIT
Composition, Piano, Electronics: Keiichiro Shibuya
Text: GPT
Android Vocal Production: Keiichiro Shibuya, Shintaro Imai
Mix, Piano Recording: François Baurin (Hinterland Lab)
Mastering: Rashad Becker (clunk)
Score Notation Assistant: Hiroto Kikukawa
Artwork: Ryoji Tanaka
Photograph: ayaka endo
Production: Natsumi Matsumoto (ATAK)
Produce: Keiichiro Shibuya (ATAK)