Fractured Fusion

Who Mary Starling is

Last year, during a medical issue that left me drained and unable to deal with the world as my medications were all suddenly cut off, I started playing a game called Vast Horizon — a sci-fi MOO out of the Bunki Center. I’ve always loved games with solid roleplay elements, and this one didn’t disappoint.

I took on the role of Amaryllis Starling, a new pilot training to become a therapist for all the other pilots while doubling as an independent electronic music artist. The game is set in a fictional future where Earth is dead and humans are scattered across the known galaxy. There is a whole lot of lore to it. But the point is that I started playing this character: a short, spontaneous, pale-skinned albino with deep insecurity issues and a love for music and music therapy. I started writing songs on Suno based on her life experiences, and those became her early material.

Somewhere along the line the game lost its appeal to me, for a lot of reasons. The character didn’t. I kept going, and I started combining AI music generation with my own electronic work, which gave me textures and moods I hadn’t fully explored before. So I combined the Mary persona I’d been using for game music with my Ableton creations, and that eventually became Fractured Fusion.

Why it sat in an archive

The problem was that people take a pretty harsh view of AI music. I understand that misattribution is a problem in any space. But I truly feel AI music can be used creatively — as an instrument, as a means of capturing what you aren’t otherwise capable of capturing.

I eventually backed off from putting this project on my Bandcamp, where the rules around AI work are much stricter. So Mary, and music I wrote myself out of a great deal of emotion that was entirely mine, got left to sit in my archive with no home.

That changes today.

How it was made

These tracks were created largely in Ableton Live 12, with some enhancements made using AI, and with the voice persona of Mary that I designed during one very brutal late winter and early spring. The model was Suno v4.5+.

I’m sharing this having finally got a home where I can host the projects most places online won’t allow. I hope these tracks distinguish themselves from the noise of other AI music out there, and change your mind about what it can be when you approach the medium as an instrument rather than a plagiarism machine.

If it’s not your cup of tea, then please go have a look at my other work. Otherwise — thanks for listening.