By Kira Grunenberg | Published January 2026
Artificial intelligence is a heated point of contention within today’s creative spaces, particularly around music, given the emergence of AI “artists” on platforms like Spotify and the negative implications they can have on living musicians and songwriters. With this in mind, bassist Thomas Morgan’s incorporation of WOODS — a virtual string instrument of his own design that operates according to generative code — on his debut album, Around You Is A Forest, initially feels like Morgan capitulating his own creativity to a digital counterpart. However, viewing the record as borne of invasive, artificial means is a mistake.
That said, this album isn’t for melodic escapism. Repetitious rhythms, unpredictable solos and improvisations, and the continuous freneticism of WOODS’ string notes, make each track feel like the sonic representation of complex computer language, despite the impressive duets Morgan plays with different artists on eight of nine tracks. This is a fitting parallel, as Morgan grew up around computers and has about as much intimate familiarity with their programming and creative potential as he does with composing and playing the bass. One can marvel at what Morgan was able to program an instrument to do and appreciate the true-to-self blending of Morgan’s two well-cultivated but not equally public passions. The album also prompts worthwhile philosophical questions around the juxtaposition of limitations, possibilities, human input, and artificial output. As a listening experience though, Around You Is A Forest is more an intellectual statement than a recreational one.
