The unhappy tenor has called off a forthcoming Japan tour, according to his website.

The earliest he will return to singing is at the Nobel Prize concert in Stockholm on December 8.

‘Daddy’s Car’ was composed by artificial intelligence.

‘Flow Machines software learns music styles from a huge database of songs. Then, exploiting unique combinations of style transfer, optimization and interaction techniques, it can compose in any style.’

Be very afraid.

Five decades of international isolation allowed an antediluvian style to be conserved on the island.

Cuba’s music was largely uncorrupted by commercialism.

Placido Domingo has called off his hotly anticipated Havana homecoming tonight, due to the nine days of mourning declared for the death of Fidel Castro.

He is hoping to reschedule in 2017.

From the Lebrecht Album of the Week:

If you thought of encores as sweetmeats, this album redefines the genre. Each is piece is not so much a cap on the proceedings as a new line of inquiry, a way of keeping all the evening’s music in mind while continuing to explore its possible ramifications.

Read on here.

And here.

The death has been announced of Pauline Oliveros, a composer of striking originality and a profound philosopher of modern music.

An activist at the San Francisco Tape Music Center, she she coined the term ‘Deep Listening’ and founded the Deep Listening Institute. Aside from electronic music, she was an accordion enthusiast.

From an interview with Bruce Duffie:

BD:    So what are the issues that are currently at hand?

PO:    It’s the great dispersion that I predicted in my book Software for People, which was that the two factors were the great increase in population — there more people than there ever have been before — and the acceleration of new technology.  You really don’t know what’s coming next, exactly.  Everyone is always trying to predict and control the future, but I don’t think it’s possible at this time because there are just too many X factors.

BD:    So you and your foundation and your music are building the future brick by brick?

PO:    Yeah, I would say something like that; or we might take some leaps!  But the idea is that we need a context for new work, because it has to do with the quality of life.  It has to do with problem solving, understanding the creative nature of the human being, and working with it and accepting it;  finding ways to do that.  Not just repeating things that have been done before, but to bring some kind of balance in place for the unknown.

BD:    Is it at all disappointing that the public isn’t craving the unknown in music?

PO:    The public is, but they don’t necessarily know it!  [Laughs]