Autumn has always been the favorite season of songwriters. The light turns golden, the air smells of wood smoke and ripe fruit, and the whole world seems to slow down for a thoughtful sigh. Folk singers have been writing about it for centuries, usually with a guitar, a cup of tea and a sad look.
This clip takes the tradition into a brand new direction. The scene is an old orchard with golden apples hanging from tired branches, and a village house sitting quietly on a hill behind it. In front of the camera stands a young woman with a dark braid and a white embroidered blouse, singing with all her heart. The twist: neither the singer nor the song was ever in a real studio. Everything was made by artificial intelligence, from the melody to the face.
The words appear in big yellow letters at the bottom of the frame, line after line, in a Balkan language that sounds beautiful even if you only understand the melody. One line speaks of the autumn waiting for you, with the scent of golden quinces drifting across the land. Another line says that there is no sorrow without people, and no peace for the soul without them.
The singer’s face is full of emotion. She closes her eyes at the sad parts, opens them wide for the big notes, and smiles at the end like someone who has just remembered a joyful secret. A second character appears for a moment, a blonde woman looking out of a wooden window at the hills, like a scene from a village film.
It is easy to be skeptical about music made by computers. Where is the dust on the guitar? Where are the late-night rehearsals and the missed notes? But there is also something fascinating about it. The computer has listened to thousands of folk songs and is now trying to write a new one, a little like a student who has read every poetry book in the library and wants to try writing a poem.
Does it have a soul? Perhaps not in the way a grandmother humming over a stove does. But the apples look real, the sunlight is warm, and the melody lingers in the head for a long time afterwards, which is the main job of any folk song.
So can a computer sing a song about autumn apples? Apparently yes. Whether it can cry over them is a question for the next generation of philosophers. In the meantime, grab a warm drink, put on your scarf and let the orchard sing.
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