Luca Yupanqui looks set to become the world’s youngest recording artist in history, having recorded her debut album before she was born, thanks to her musician parents and some cutting-edge audio tech.
Elizabeth Hart, a member of psych-rock band Psychic Ills, along with her partner and fellow musician Iván Diaz Mathe, used so-called “biosonic MIDI technology” to record their unborn daughter’s movements inside the womb during five-hour “joint meditation” sessions.
When the album drops on April 2, ‘Sounds of the Unborn’ will become the first LP to use audio recorded in utero. The proud parents used electrodes to transcribe the vibrations and sounds made by little Luca to a MIDI that fed the information into various synthesizers to produce a rather unique sound.
The tracks were edited and mixed with allegedly minimal intervention by the girl's parents, “allowing Luca’s message to exist in its raw form.”
Sacred Bones, the record label behind the release, says the infant “would open her eyes wide and stare at her parents, seemingly recognising her own sounds from the womb, knowing that they were revisiting those rituals that made them come together as one.”
Early reviews online were a mixed bag, with many making light of the whole situation.
“Luca sounds ready to battle X Æ A-Xii,” wrote one YouTube user, referencing Elon Musk’s child, who also shot to viral fame rather early in life. "Beats the s**t out of baby shark tbh," joked another.
"Convenient that the mother keeps synthesizers in her womb for baby to play with,” another critic chimed in. “How the other half live.”
Also on rt.com Children of Men come true? Covid-19 may reduce male fertility worldwide, scientists warnSome online commenters were less fawning. One opined that the parents were "Exploiting innocence.” Another criticized the work itself, saying it "gave me a headache to be honest."
The experimental music is unlikely to top the charts any time soon, but the publicity of being the world’s first LP recorded entirely in utero may garner some new fans for the artist’s parents and the burgeoning music label.
In fact, the equipment used to record the album, the “MIDI Biodata Sonication Device,” is available for pre-order at the eye-popping cost of $200.
"Listen to any living thing and create your own music together with them and your MIDI Biodata Sonification System," the Sacred Bones label website reads.
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