The animated film Tail, for which I composed the music, won the Best Short Film Award in the Silver Anhuma competition at the T.I.F.A. International Film Festival held in Brazil.

I recently received an email from Professor Wu Jiede of Anhui Normal University, informing me that the animated film Tail, for which I composed the music, won the Best Short Film Award in the Silver Anhuma competition at the T.I.F.A. International Film Festival held in Brazil. This was a soundtrack I composed during the summer of 2024. According to Professor Wu Jie’s email, Tail has been selected by numerous film festivals, including winning the Best Short Film Award at the Athvikvaruni International Film Festival in India. What makes the T.I.F.A. recognition particularly exciting is that the selected works also listed the composers’ names, and seeing my name included brought me a great sense of joy. It’s proof that I worked hard to learn and create during last summer!

My new work, “Echo of Serenity”, presented at the 2024 WOCMAT Conference and the Annual Concert of the Computer Music Association of Taiwan.

My new audiovisual work, “Echo of Serenity”, will be presented at the 2024 WOCMAT Conference and the Annual Concert of the Computer Music Association of Taiwan. In addition to the audiovisual piece itself, the performance will feature live improvisations on the erhu and dance. 

Here is the link to the program. 

Invited to give a lecture on “AI Music and Sound Design” at the Department of Drama, National Taiwan University, on October 7.

Today, I was invited by Professor Jing-Mei Zhu from the Department of Drama at National Taiwan University to deliver a lecture on AI music. My lecture was structured around the traditional workflow of digital music production, discussing which roles have already been replaced by AI, which processes remain challenging for AI to replicate, and which automated tools allow for greater control over details without heavy reliance on AI.

It is evident that AI is still not ideal for creating orchestral dramatic scores. However, tools like Suno AI can already generate very pleasing musical theater-style songs. For time-synced scoring, it is more effective to use high-quality licensed music libraries combined with automated tools, or, with a higher budget, to collaborate with composers. AI music, on the other hand, struggles with designing music that aligns with specific time points in a film’s narrative. 

With this, the two AI music workshops for Chunghwa Telecom and today’s workshop at NTU have concluded for this semester. Throughout the process of preparing these sessions, I have gained many valuable insights myself!

Invited to deliver a lecture at the Chunghwa Telecom Academy: AI Music Workshop - AI Voice Cloning and AI Virtual Singers (September 19).

I would like to thank Professor Chih-Jung Lin from the Chunghwa Telecom Academy for inviting me for the second time to deliver a lecture on AI music. This lecture was conducted online, focusing on the topics of AI voice cloning and AI virtual singers. Among these, AI virtual singers represent a technology that has already reached maturity and is likely to have a significant impact on music creation.

Invited to deliver a lecture at the Chunghwa Telecom Academy: AI Music Workshop - “Innovative Melodies: AI Music Production Workshop” (July 31, 2024).

I would like to thank Teacher Chih-Jung Lin from the Chunghwa Telecom Academy for the invitation. This Wednesday, I had the opportunity to give a lecture to Chunghwa Telecom employees on the applications of AI music. It was my first lecture on AI music, and it also gave me a chance to organize and review new music production tools.

The lecture started with demonstrations of automation in traditional music production tools and then transitioned into an introduction to AI music and sound design tools.

My new electronic music piece, “Whispers of Dust and Sand,” will be premiered at the WOCMAT & TCMA Concert on December 22.

On December 22, at the WOCMAT conference concert, I presented my purely electronic composition, “Whispers of Dust and Sand.” This piece utilized AI-generated sound materials to replace traditional recorded samples, which were then transformed and processed using techniques such as granular synthesis and a custom-designed spectral delay effect created in Max/MSP. After the processing and refinement, I was quite satisfied with the resulting sound.

Interestingly, the concert’s poster and animated video poster were also designed by me using AI tools. In the future, I plan to pair this composition with visuals created through AI tools, which might make the piece even more intriguing.

Program Notes for Whispers of Dust and Sand:

This electronic music composition is inspired by the Buddhist verse:

“The Bodhi tree is not a tree, the mirror is not a stand. Fundamentally, there is nothing, so where can dust alight?”

as well as the Biblical phrase:

“Dust to dust, ashes to ashes.”

Dust and sand symbolize the ephemeral ripples of events that arise due to various causes and conditions. Since “fundamentally, there is nothing,” all conflicts and entanglements carried by drifting sand will eventually return to nothingness.

The piece primarily employs granular synthesis and spectral delay techniques to deconstruct and defamiliarize sounds such as piano tones and metallic percussions. These transformed sounds are then reorganized according to the design of the music’s tension and structural needs.

• The piece begins with delicate metallic sounds accompanied by delay and reverb effects, along with a sustained background tone, creating a dreamy and ethereal atmosphere.

• The middle section transitions into an auditory imagination of turbulent flying sand and stones, represented by fragmented sounds swiftly moving through space.

• In the latter half, the piece is characterized by a dense and restless rhythm, primarily derived from piano tones transformed through sound manipulation.

      • Finally, the work returns to the dreamy atmosphere of the beginning, featuring fragmented metallic sounds and sustained tones, fading out gradually as the tension diminishes and the volume recedes, concluding the piece.

My composition for cello and interactive music system, “Untold Stories,” was premiered at the WOCMAT 2022 Concert on December 7.

My composition for cello and interactive music system, “A Story Untold,” was premiered at the 2022 WOCMAT Conference on Music Technology and Audio Technology and the “Computer Music Association 2022 Commissioned Work Concert.” The concert was held on December 7, 2022, at the Eslite Performance Hall.

This work was supported by the National Culture and Arts Foundation, commissioned by the Computer Music Association of Taiwan, and performed by cellist Chang Chih-Hui.