Al Baker

 

Having played guitar for 20 years, Al has performed in conventional rock groups, electronic outfits and more recently as part of traditional music groups.  He has played in large festivals in Ireland including the Electric Picnic and was chosen as part of the touring group which the Arts Council brought to Popkomm in Berlin and to the UK for the Great Escape festival.  Accompanying traditional musicians on the acoustic guitar became an interest after studying the backing approaches of Steve Cooney and Tim Edey.  Having gained a degree from TCD in Information and Communications Technology, programming with a creative approach in mind became a route which appealed most to Al.  For his Master's thesis, Al is researching the automatic generation of harmonies purely from the analysis of a melody in the traditional style.  This is based on the approaches of Steve Cooney and Tim Edey and will be available as an application for mobile devices.