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The beats dripping, a male voice grumbles, whispers, grumbles, the pace is leisurely, the mood pressed, the melancholy swells from all the cracks of this music. That sounds in song number one, in song number two and three, in song number eight, number 99, number 385, number 4185 (and counting). Max is a project, performance and digital installation of the musician, producer and artist Valentin Hansen. The Berliner levered the exploitation logic of the streaming services four years ago with Crisis (The Worthless Album) and the associated installation “The Farm”. With the Max launched on January 1, 2025, he destroyed her logic – and that of the entire pop business.
Max is an artificial intelligence that produces and releases a new song every two minutes, which does not sound like that in front of it, but still sounds very like Valentin Hansen. On the Max.valentinhansen.Live website, an album growing into infinity is created at mis -lined speed, which is already explosing all human hearing habits in its entirety. And endlessly asks a lot of questions: Who makes music there? A computer or a person? And: is that still important? What does that mean for the future? What do we love about music: more than the nice melody that spits on a AI every second? Or is music of original human expression – and connects us to others? In the end, Valentin Hansen with Max asks the greatest of all questions: What is man? Reason enough to ask him a few questions about the whole!
ME: Do you really think Max is a good idea? Or in other words: How does it feel that it is abolished and made it superfluous?
Valentin Hansen: I feel less abolished than multiplied. In order to get my goal as close as possible after maximum productivity, Max is the best album I could have done.
Did the AI surprise you? Did you get to know another Valentin Hansen? And if so: how many?
The AI is an unusual mirror. It does not show me who I am, but who I could be. I didn’t just get to know other Valentins – I found countless that I have not yet understood.
Do we need musicians: at all from meat and blood?
In any case, someone else is needed who or who adopt the music.
Is that the end of pop music as we know it?
It is the end of something and the beginning of everything else. Pop music will always change, that is her core. Max is another step in this direction – or in another.
With Max you ask many questions. Which is the most important?
How far can we go before we lose ourselves?