Pianist · Composer · Engineer
Jazz improvisation. Systems theory. Human–AI interaction.
Three disciplines. One continuous inquiry.
Following years of performing on the New York jazz circuit — at Joe's Pub, the Zinc Bar, the Iridium, the Apollo — and releasing several solo piano volumes, the core of my creative process remained rooted in improvisational meditation. Jazz not merely as genre, but as a discipline of real-time feedback and flow.
My focus eventually expanded from musical harmony to relational harmony. A Master of Science in Family Therapy allowed me to formalize an understanding of Systems Theory. This transition wasn't a departure, but a pivot — applying the same sense used to navigate a complex jazz fugue to the intricate patterns of human communication.
Today, these threads converge in work at Google — focused on how humans and AI interact — and in Sing Rae. The interface treated as a relational space that requires the same ear for resonance and the same logic for systems. A jazz pianist's intuition meeting the technical architecture of neural rendering.
The same ear that hears a chord wanting to resolve hears a conversation wanting to land.
Sing Rae is a vocal reconstruction project — a hybrid of human intention and algorithmic rendering. The AI serves as the vocal cord; the nervous system, the lyrics, the arrangement, the emotional arc, remain strictly human. One voice, sampled across decades, singing new truths.
Visit singrae.com →
Three albums recorded across a decade of live performance on two continents — trio, quartet, and band sessions that document the New York and Boston years.
A catalog spanning two decades of writing — from the Brazilian rhythms of the early trio records to the open-form structures of the New York years. Each chart available for $0.99.
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Barkan is enamored of the piano's beautiful tonal qualities and its vast potential for rapturous melody.
A gripping musical experience from start to finish.
A superb pianist, whose music, Hispanic-inflected, has a visceral power and excitement.
Barkan's compositions reveal him as a distinctive voice in the sometimes crowded-seeming field of musicians with superb technique.
Barkan's masterful pianistics are rendered in the service of the song, not to prove himself to anyone.
I'm placing this recording amongst some pretty significant trio recordings, like the early Bill Evans Trio, early '60s Denny Zeitlin, and Brad Mehldau.
His compositions stand shoulder-to-shoulder with tunes by Sammy Cahn, Herbie Hancock and Duke Ellington.
Compelling music with a tender heart.
Some signals come through best in person.
Reach out.
Reach out directly
info@giladbarkan.com
