Sebastian Pfeifer: AI, Dubstep and the Jazz of Tomorrow

In this episode we listen to and talk about music by Sebastian Pfeifer who is a pianist, producer and composer blending jazz, dubstep and experimental electronic music. He tells the story of how getting kicked out of classical piano lessons as a child led him to dubstep production, and eventually into jazz. We talk about how he uses AI tools like Neutone to transform his own voice into something strange and expressive, how he tricks Ableton's audio-to-MIDI engine to generate dense string arrangements from distorted piano recordings, and why glitchy, broken-sounding algorithms are more interesting to him than polished prompt-to-music tools like Suno.He also shares the process behind the track Endling from his trio Endern — a one-take improvisation transcribed and re-orchestrated for saxophone and synth, ending in a chaotic crescendo of distorted drums, screaming sax and fake soprano sax generated by AI.This episode digs into hybrid workflows, AI as a performance instrument, and the blurred lines between improvisation, composition and machine learning.