Hyperdub releasing Lawrence Lek’s AIDOL 爱道 soundtrack

Scoring the story of a fading superstar and an aspiring AI songwriter.

Hyperdub is releasing multimedia artist Lawrence Lek’s AIDOL 爱道 soundtrack, this November.

Read more: Lawrence Lek conjures “soundtrack to an unreal nightclub” on Temple OST

AIDOL 爱道 is part of Lek’s ongoing Sinofuturist video essay, which takes seven stereotypes of Chinese society – ‘computing’, ‘copying’, ‘gaming’, ‘studying’, ‘addiction’, ‘labour’, and ‘gambling’ – to construct a conspiracy theory that China’s technological rise is a new form of Artificial Intelligence.

It tells the story of fading superstar Diva, who enlists the help of an aspiring AI songwriter for a comeback performance at the 2065 eSports Olympic finale, ultimately exploring the struggle between humanity and AI.

Lek created Diva’s vocals using a Vocaloid voice synthesizer, while Kode9 plays the unforgiving label boss, with the score drawing on influences including video game soundtracks, vaporwave and ambient.

AIDOL 爱道 follows the release of Lek’s Temple OST on The Vinyl Factory.

Pre-order a copy of AIDOL 爱道’ here in advance of its 27th November release, and check out the artwork and tracklist below.

Tracklist:

1. Intro (My Single Isn’t Finished Yet)
2. Deep Blue Monday
3. In The Game
4. Chance Encounter (Jungle Theme)
5. Call of Beauty
6. Welcome to SoMA
7. Unreal
8. Superstar
9. One Nation
10. Beware Your Fans, Diva
11. Call of Beauty (eSports Repreise)
12. Followers (Diva’s Theme)
13. Farsight’s Greatest Star
14. In My Prime (Bonus Track)
15. Apocalypse (End Theme)