YESSi PERSE's CYBERMEDIEVAL Album Explores Digital Feudalism Through Sonic Speculation
The conceptual album CYBERMEDIEVAL, lasting 40 minutes and 33 seconds, has been launched by the Barcelona-based group YESSi PERSE. This work, which comprises five auditory pieces, pays homage to major tech corporations—Meta, Microsoft, Apple, Google-Alphabet, and Amazon (MMAGA)—by intertwining choral elements with medieval music. It critiques the user-technology dynamic, imagining a future where these companies reign as lords over 'Userfs,' akin to digital serfs. The album embodies a New Dark Age, suggesting that big tech supersedes nation-states. Curated by James Taylor-Foster for the 2026 ArkDes and Moderna Museet exhibition, it features contributions from YESSi PERSE, SWAN MEAT, and the ARSinNOVA choir, inspired by thinkers Ailton Krenak and Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui.
Key facts
- CYBERMEDIEVAL is a conceptual album by YESSi PERSE on digital feudalism, lasting 40 minutes and 33 seconds.
- The album consists of five exercises in sonic speculation, MIDIeval tales, and corporate anthems for Meta, Microsoft, Apple, Google-Alphabet, and Amazon (MMAGA).
- Composition involves poetic reinterpretation of the companies' legal terms and conditions, blending choral polyphonic music, synthetic voices, and medieval European soundscapes.
- The term techno-feudalism traces back to the 1990s GURPS Cyberpunk sourcebook and has been popularized by Yanis Varoufakis, Cédric Durand, and Evgeny Morozov.
- YESSi PERSE coined the term 'Userfs' (user+serf) to describe digital serfdom under tech lords.
- The curatorial text is by James Taylor-Foster for the 2026 exhibition 'Worldglimpsing: Roleplay and the Design of Alternate Realities' at ArkDes and Moderna Museet.
- Production credits include SWAN MEAT (mix & master), Neurodungeon (label), Cristina Colomer (transcription and choral arrangements), ARSinNOVA chamber choir, Maria Mauri Fàbregas (choir conductor), Angel Sound Studio at the oratory of Sant Felip Neri (choir recording), and Nebula Millarca a.k.a. Igor Mortis (soprano).
- Funding and support from Premis Barcelona, Premio Miquel Casablancas (Sant Andreu Contemporani), Me gustas pixelad_, Premio Generaciones (La Casa Encendida, Madrid), Can Felipa Arts Visuals, and L.E.V. Festival (Laboratorio de Electrónica Visual).
Entities
Artists
- YESSi PERSE
- James Taylor-Foster
- Ailton Krenak
- Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
- Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui
- Yanis Varoufakis
- Cédric Durand
- Evgeny Morozov
- SWAN MEAT
- Cristina Colomer
- Maria Mauri Fàbregas
- Nebula Millarca
- Igor Mortis
Institutions
- ArkDes (The Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design)
- Moderna Museet (Swedish Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art)
- Neurodungeon
- ARSinNOVA chamber choir
- Angel Sound Studio
- Premis Barcelona
- Premio Miquel Casablancas
- Sant Andreu Contemporani
- Me gustas pixelad_
- Premio Generaciones
- La Casa Encendida
- Can Felipa Arts Visuals
- L.E.V. Festival (Laboratorio de Electrónica Visual)
- Meta
- Microsoft
- Apple
- Google-Alphabet
- Amazon
Locations
- Barcelona
- Spain
- Madrid
- Sweden