EKHEO is a duo formed by Aude Langlois (FR) and Belinda Sykora (AT), exploring the intersection of music, visual art and sonic performance.
They are joined by multimedia artist Rodger Brown (JM/US), who designs the scenic and visual elements. “LEEWA – A DIGITAL CHILD” is part of Ekheo’s ongoing artistic research since 2016, investigating the relationship between voice, ethics and technology. LEEWA, a AI ‘digital child’, is sonically embodied through a bespoke synthetic voice – crafted from the morphed voices of EKHEO. The work promotes ethical reflection, showing how embodied AI in an artistic context can inspire personal and societal transformation.
EKHEO are part of the Composer in the Loop program. The program provides insights into AI-supported composition processes. As part of the Musikfonds‘ scholarship programme, ten musicians spend an entire year exploring the opportunities and risks of AI-based composition. The results will be presented on November 16, 2025, at Radialsystem in Berlin. Entry is free with registration.
Questions and Answers
3 FACTS
1: Voice is a good conversation topic when you want to avoid small talk.
2: A digital child is easy to handle
3: Protecting human dignity includes preventing people from being misled into thinking a bot is a human: https://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/downloads/DE/publikationen/themen/it-digitalpolitik/gutachten-datenethikkommission.pdf
11 QUESTIONS
1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
We are inspired by the voice itself, both as a sonic medium and as a phenomenon.
2. How and when did you get into making music?
We started making sound art projects together as soon as we met during our studies in Sound Studies (UdK-Berlin). Our shared interest for the voice united us.
3. How does your project address the ethical and copyright-related issues that arise from the use of AI in music/composition?
We are currently working with a custom AI-generated voice named Leewa, which we refer to as our digital child. We train and sculpt this voice using tools like text-to speech synthesis and neural voice cloning. The idea is to deeply explore AI generated vocal textures and a certain form of sonic embodiment. Within this project, we approach AI not as a shortcut for creation but as a medium that requires critical and ethical responsibility. The vocal models we are using are trained with self made vocal datasets. Rather than imitating or reproducing human expression, we focus on building a vocal persona whose voice is entirely synthetic but based on our two voices. The project engages with ethical concerns: voice ownership, the perception of artifical voices by human beings… We reflect on these tensions and incorporate them in our sound work. For us, AI is not neutral: it has tides in narratives, aesthetics and politics. With a poetic approach, we choose to work with it as consciously and critically as possible.
4. What do you associate with Berlin?
Freedom to experiment. A tension between decay and reinvention.
5. What’s your favorite place in your town?
Any space that exists in a paradox. An acoustically challenging place that holds personality.
6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
*silence*
7. What was the last record/music you bought or listen?
While developing the visual identity of the project, we listened to a lot of Soundwalk Collective, especially their album Peradam.
8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
Sasha Waltz.
9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
Our best experience as performers was probaly one of the editions of “Improvised and Experimental” at Hošek Contemporary. We played there a few times, and once, it started to rain during the performance so we integrated the sound of the rain falling on the rooftop in our improvisation. A true sharing experience between the two of us and also with the audience.
10. How important is technology to your creative process?
It is essential. It is not only a tool, it is a way for us to think our relationship with the world through sound.
11. How do you plan to present the results of your research at Radialsystem?
Through an immersive performance where Leewa’s voice is set in a spatial sound environment.
