Damon Albarn: watch the surprise performance at the premiere of Luca Guadagnino's “Artificial”

Damon Albarn delivered a surprise performance at the world premiere of “Artificial”, Luca Guadagnino's new film about artificial intelligence, centred on the figure of Sam Altman, co-founder and former CEO of OpenAI. The British musician, who also composed the film's score, performed on piano at Alice Tully Hall, accompanied by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and a vibraphonist, during the film's presentation at the New York Film Festival.
The appearance came in the midst of Albarn's live commitments with Gorillaz: after Sunday's show in Toronto and ahead of the next stop in Cleveland. At the premiere, the Blur frontman also took part in the Q&A alongside Guadagnino, screenwriter Simon Rich and several cast members, including Andrew Garfield, Yura Borisov and Cooper Hoffman.
Below are some videos of Damon Albarn's performance.

A surprise live performance played before Luca Guadagnino’s “Artificial” worldwide premiere at #NYFF https://t.co/4PEzwkAqjP

— Variety (@Variety) October 5, 2026

Guadagnino himself recounted how the collaboration came about, revealing he has long admired Albarn's music and songwriting, particularly his ability to build whole worlds by bringing together seemingly opposite elements, from symphonic orchestration to electronics. "I'm a bit of a megalomaniac, so I thought: why not?", the director joked, explaining his decision to ask Albarn to compose the music for “Artificial”.
For Guadagnino, the role of the soundtrack is anything but a secondary detail. "Damon's contribution is as close as you can get to a deep humanity in a world that, in some way, has forgotten what it means to be human," he explained. According to early accounts, Albarn's compositions run substantially through the entire film and, taken as a whole, almost take on the shape of a standalone album.

Albarn admitted he initially had some doubts about taking on the job. "I didn't think I'd be able to put together a decent soundtrack," he recalled. Meeting Guadagnino, however, quickly dispelled his hesitation: "This is the guy for me".
The musician described the process as an "emotional journey", born out of a film that tackles what he considers a "critical moment" for contemporary society, while trying to strike a balance between darkness and a sense of humour. To describe his own perception of artificial intelligence, Albarn finally turned to a fairy-tale image: "It makes me think of Snow White's mirror: it's everything you want to be".

The New York performance thus offered a first live preview of one of the central elements of “Artificial”: a soundtrack through which Albarn tries to bring a deeply human element into Guadagnino's story about the rise of artificial intelligence.

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