MUSIC BY DOLPHINS

"The Sirius Institute, based on the island of Hawai'I, is dedicated to the creation of human/dolphin co-creative habitats...We intend to have full, objective, symbolic communication between people and dolphins. We are exploring many aspects of human/dolphin interaction such as underwater birth with dolphins, dolphin sound healing or restoration...

The Dolphin Valentine recording demonstrates a musical communication interface for human-dolphin communication. This is the first dolphin-created music.

The dolphins at the Hyatt Regency Waikaloa [now the Hilton Waikaloa] were recorded on Valentine's Day 1992. Their sounds were processed using the "Song Swimmer" interface developed by the Sirius Institute...

In future work, we intend to have human-dolphin concerts, where the dolphins will create music interactively using the Song Swimmer with human musicians...

The Song Swimmer interface is the beginning of an interface that will permit the dolphins to operate computers..."

Dolphin Valentine

"Welcome to a new form of music, where the creators are another species. We have played this MIDI tape to many musicians and they hear it as music, so, by observational definition, it is music.

Copies of Dolphin Valentine are available from siriusinstitute@yahoo.com"

Is it music? Who knows, but the result is pleasantly Eno-ish ambience, so who cares? A bigger question is: why do dolphins need to use computers?