a seminar at ALGOMUS

Following the kindest of invitations by Alexandre D’Hooge, I made a trip to Lille, France, to give a seminar for the amazing ALGOMUS team. I doubt there are many places in the whole world where my area of research would resonate so well with: not only ALGOMUS focuses mainly on symbolic music, they also have a deeply rooted interest in the tablature world.

After an amazing train ride between London and Lille of just 1h20 minutes (well, 20 minutes on the way back, if we consider timezone differences!), Ken Déguernel was kind enough to pick me at the train station, and together we made our way into campus, discussing common friends, the state of MIR around the world, what is the true meaning of creativity, and the distinctions between style and genre.

Due to the socio-political tensions throughout France at the time of this visit, as soon as we got to campus we found that the facilities of ALGOMUS were closed due to a bag that was left unattended. Very quickly an alternate place for the seminar was arranged, and sooner than later I was having a delicious lunch (that Terrine de Campagne!) with the team, having the pleasure to meet Louis Bigo, Francesco Maccarini, Vanessa Nina Borsan, Baptiste Bascot, and of course Alexandre D’Hooge, in person for the first time.

Luckily, the unattended-bag-situation was resolved, and I had the chance to visit the facilities of the lab and do my presentation there. Joining us were three very special guests: Maxime, Rémi and Nicolas Martin from the Guitar Pro/Arobas Music team. Special because (1) I’m a fan of the software for as far as I can recall, and also because (2) my whole PhD project revolves and was built around this almighty tablature edition software. It felt pretty much like the completion of a circle to be able to present some of my AI-generated guitar tabs to the team that developed the software throughout the years.

I felt very comfortable during the presentation, fuelled by a genuine interest from the audience. Joining online were Dinh-Viet-Toan Le (a special word of appraisal for joining from Singapore!), Louis Couturier and Mathieu Giraud, amongst others. After an engaging and fruitful discussion about my work, we continued the conversation about all things related to guitar tablatures in the MIR world, and I also had the opportunity to learn a bit more about Vanessa’s research, focusing on Slovenian Folk music and a clever pattern matching algorithm, and got to know Ken’s super interesting academic career so far, his multiple computer music projects throughout the years, his creative and research ideas and drives.

Finally, together with Alexandre and Ken there was still time to visit the beautiful city centre of Lille, which I found absolutely Tintinesque and charming. Amongst a few drinks, we share stories and common interests about martial arts, Frank Zappa, anime, and I learn a thing or two about how important the process of frying potatoes is in Belgium, the bullet holes in the façades of many of the buildings in Lille, and why Ken is called Ken.

Thanks to the whole ALGOMUS team for such a warm welcoming, and specially to Alexandre for making this happen!