AI may resemble, in the case of music (in this example), a “magazine” cut-out from each creator makes a collage. Sometimes the cutout is just that - a fragment of someone else’s work. Sometimes it is a complex composition made of multiple cut-outs. And sometimes it resembles a papercraft collage young children make at school.

When I started making music, AI (the kind we know now) did not exist. My music path was more or less typical for my generation. I can divide my music journey into phases.

I learned to play guitar and started writing songs (even though I wished I could play piano and write something 'classical'). Piano education was not on the table. The guitar lessons were. The instrument was always available, hanging on a wall - gathering dust. So, it was the obvious and convenient choice. Once I started learning, I couldn’t stop: several hours a day, over and over, until one day, I got an electric guitar. Then the education process really took off.

I started making music after I learned my first 3 chords. The band seemed like a natural progression of the music path. The band phase began with its ambitions, complications, the lack of direction, and eventual predictable end. 

When the band vanished like an early morning fog above water, I tried to keep my music ambitions alive with multiple infusions of solo-made electronically edited versions of my songs. There used to be a platform - The Garage Band (no, not Apple's one). The concept was interesting: you listened to other people's music and rated it; they listened to yours - everyone was more or less happy. That also came to an end - together with the platform.

I went back to the guitar, continued playing and writing songs - still, after holding onto my raft, after floating upon calm and then unruly waters, I ended up in a swamp, lost my raft, managed to get out and started my journey on firm ground. The music remained there, somewhere where the raft went.

I want to go back there - to the land of Kasima. I want to find a new spring and revive the music I lost. Will I be able to do so? Time will tell.