Is art artificial, is it a rhythm, or is it an algorithm—this is the question Ulf Herold poses, and the answer sounds rather affirmative: the two are not necessarily to be understood as opposites, but as dynamic counter-poles—this becomes evident in Herold’s four-track EP Hyper Possibility. The first track, “self generating piano,” offers an image in which the piano is played without “the master”, playing by itself. This sound is “artificial” insofar as no classical melodies can be found within it, yet it is simultaneously rhythmic, since one encounters repetition that generates a specific, synthetic movement—like the random touching of a keyboard. 

With the second track, the EP moves beyond acoustic sound into a kind of synthetic portability. As in a particle collider in a laboratory, the controllability of the experiment gives rise to a randomness that hints at Herold’s “hyper possibility”. This random collision of particles has a different musicality than that of a biological rhythm, as it is detached from biological corporeality and follows the laws of atomic motion. In this way, the possibility of another world—one that differs from human biorhythms while simultaneously encompassing them—becomes musically and thus physically perceptible, like a contact between organic and inorganic matter.

The third part of hyper possibility is an extended presentation of hypothetical forms—forms that do not necessarily find a fixed place in the geometrical reality known to us, but which increasingly gain reality as partially invisible and digital images. Hyperreality is not “pseudo-real,” but neither is it a completely independent world of images—it is intertwined with the rhythms of contemporary life and regulates them through its own spontaneous yet recurring intrusions, much like the excessive flows of information in digital networks. The final part, “subtle heavy,” is a reflective closing of the circle that shows the sensitivity of the hyperreal. The last track sounds like an attempt to find harmony between the subtle rhythmic sound—the core of artistic creativity—and the heavy pressure of algorithms. Whether this harmony is itself real remains open within the track. 

hyper possibility does not offer definitive statements on the pressing questions surrounding the merging of digital and physical media, which can scarcely maintain their autonomous rhythms anymore. Yet the emphasis on possibility, on potentiality, as well as the generally meditative tone of the final track, leaves listeners with a rather affirmative and even hopeful feeling regarding our own hyperreal potentiality. Rather than crudely separating the “digital” from the “natural,” this musical work proposes a way of finding a mode of coexistence within today’s medial entanglement—one that seeks to open not only an algorithmic view of life, but also a living and human perspective on algorithms.