Updated September 29, 2017 13:12:58

Skeleton the singing AI android is ready for its worldwide debut this weekend after an intense six months of programming and composing.

Iconoclastic Japanese musician Keiichiro Shibuya worked alongside two programmers and two directors to bring Skeleton to life with help also from the University of Tokyo.

"Skeleton is a medium for a disruptive kind of new music," Shibuya said.

Shibuya is famous for his ability to combine technology and music in unusual ways.

"Every new technology is a new instrument for me."

He gained an international following with his holographic performer Hatsune Miku.

His latest project will further challenge performance perceptions when an operatic singer is replaced with the android.

Skeleton will perform three songs in front of the Australian Art Orchestra eight-piece ensemble as part of the Oz Asia Festival in Adelaide.

Photo: Skeleton met the crowd at an Oz Asia preview. (ABC Radio Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

"This is not a normal android because it is also able to move a bit itself," Shibuya said.

"It can react to movement and sound."

Photo: Skeleton in rehearsal with Keiichiro Shibuya and members of the Australian Art Orchestra (Supplied)

Shibuya said Skeleton's ability to express emotions through facial movement would further humanise the performance.

Though Shibuya has previously been met with mixed responses to his innovations, he said musicians had nothing to fear from his work.

"Composing music is difficult enough, but making a melody and [computerised] sound is very difficult."

But he added: "Robots will take part in performances in the future and we are just now at the beginning."

Shibuya said his imagination was only limited by technological discovery.

Topics: music, robots-and-artificial-intelligence, community-and-multicultural-festivals, carnivals-and-festivals, adelaide-5000

First posted September 29, 2017 11:40:50