Before Alma
What Riccardo Donati wrote, played and tried before Alma Hale, in order and with dates.
For me AI is an enormous artistic opportunity: I can express myself in a way I have always dreamed of. And the past shows it well: there is a piece of today's Alma, and of the Alma to come, in everything I have done.
Riccardo Donati, October 2026. Translated from the Italian.
Played by hand
Music composed and played by Riccardo Donati, published on his channel redexerecords: pieces played in person on guitar and ukulele, and studio pieces built one part at a time.
Bach, BWV 1043
2015 · arranged and played on guitar
Après un rêve (Fauré)
2015 · classical guitar and synth
Niagara Falls
2020 · his own words and music
In the studio, every part played by him
- Through Oceans · 3:30 composed and played in 2007
- Halfkiss · 1:44 composed and played in 2007
- Plane Leaving · 1:28 composed and played in 2007
Instruments played in person
- Bach, Double Violin Concerto BWV 1043 · 0:55 the melody line for guitar, arranged and played by him
- Après un rêve (Fauré) · 2:24 classical guitar and synth
- The other summer · 1:51 for ukulele solo, composed and played
- Tra i papaveri di Wanda · 1:50 music and classical guitar
- Frammento Musicale No.2 · 1:19 composed and played: five variations on one theme
- Niagara Falls · 1:39 the words of “Cascate”: lyrics and music by Riccardo Donati
- Una piccola buona notte · 0:58 composed and played
- Taste of Cuba · 1:31 composed and played
- Sogni Belli · 1:13 for ukulele solo, composed and played
A song, three compositions, a book
In 2017 he set to music “Adesso che farai?”, on words by Serena Santorelli, playing every part on the keyboard. Its three parts became the three compositions of Amore Fisico, the book of prose and poetry he wrote in 2017 and 2018.
One of the three, “Infinito”, has a synthetic voice: a first test, nine years before Alma.
Adesso che farai?
2017 · every part played on the keyboard
- Romanzo · 1:54 for violin and strings
- Eclissi · 2:06 for piano
- Infinito · 2:21 for piano and orchestra, with a synthetic voice
- Adesso che farai? · 6:00 words by Serena Santorelli, music by Riccardo Donati
- Amore Fisico the book: prose and poetry, written in 2017 and 2018
The laboratory
In seven weeks, twenty-one experiments on his channel Riccardo Donati: harmonic progressions, songs, and poems sung in Latin, two of them from Amore Fisico. He signs them “R. Donati with AI Orchestra”: the orchestra and the voices are AI-rendered.
On YouTube they are all declared as made with AI.
Cascate Immense
2026 · “Cascate” in Latin, with an AI orchestra
Lux
2026 · “Luce” in Latin, with an AI orchestra
- Progressione · 2:08 the first: “Music written by Riccardo Donati + AI Orchestra”
- Progressione - Andante lirico · 1:59
- Quartet Colours · 1:46
- Full Colours · 2:06
- Digital Colours · 2:38
- Eastward Progression · 2:31
- Digital Progression · 4:41
- Backward · 2:32
- Sine Responso · 1:40 in Latin
- Digital Responso · 3:16 in Latin
- Punto Fisso · 2:15
- Dolcissimo Autunno · 4:24
- Cascate Immense · 3:03 the poem “Cascate” in Latin
- Digital Falls · 2:58 the same Latin text, another rendering
- Piccola Buonanotte · 1:13
- Lux · 3:03 the poem “Luce” in Latin
- You · 3:08
- Midnight Vending Machine Romance · 3:13
- Digital You · 3:45
- And the stars leaning in · 3:23
- Dance with the Stars Leaning In · 3:00