“Lorandite”: Sefidanis and Alshar Launch AI-Generated Track on OhridPress’s New Platform
When the regional news portal OhridPress unveiled its new and upgraded design on 30 September 2024, the first story chosen to open the redesigned platform was not a conventional political headline or a local human-interest piece. Instead, the portal premiered “Lorandite,” the debut track of Alshar – the humanoid robot DJ created by Sefidanis – and used this AI-generated composition as a symbol of a new digital chapter for both media and culture in Ohrid.OhridPress+1
The online premiere on OhridPress was the continuation of a story that began earlier that month. On the evening of 8 September 2024, as North Macedonia marked 33 years of independence, Alshar appeared for the first time in front of a live audience at Rebel Club in Ohrid. At midnight, the humanoid robot, built in human scale and controlled by advanced artificial intelligence, delivered a full DJ set that combined original material with carefully curated Macedonian electronic music. The set included the progressive-techno track “Lorandite”, alongside “Ajde da letame” by the multimedia group PMG and elements from the song “Zavetna” performed by Bojana Skenderovski, woven into the AI-generated soundscape.Радио МОФ+2УМНО.МК+2
Media outlets such as Radio MOF, Umno.mk and Inovativnost highlighted that Alshar’s mission goes beyond entertainment. The robot is designed to open a new era in which machine intelligence helps preserve and reinterpret Macedonian art and cultural heritage. By using state-of-the-art machine-learning paradigms, Alshar can create original music and also transform existing works into new genres and styles that resonate with younger generations, while keeping their cultural DNA intact.Радио МОФ+2УМНО.МК+2
Technically, “Lorandite” is more than just a club track. It is described in the original reports as the first composition by Alshar that is fully generated with artificial intelligence running on an NVIDIA DGX supercomputer owned by Sefidanis in the region. On the software side, the system relies on a TensorFlow-based environment, models from the Meta ecosystem and libraries for generative AI that combine supervised and unsupervised learning. This hybrid approach enables Alshar to model patterns of taste and emotional response in the audience and to adapt sets in real time in order to deliver a more immersive, future-oriented club experience.УМНО.МК+2УМНО.МК+2
The choice of the name “Lorandite” connects the track directly to one of North Macedonia’s most intriguing scientific treasures. Lorandite is a rare thallium arsenic sulphide mineral (TlAsS₂), first discovered in the Allchar (Alshar) mine on Mount Kožuf near the village of Majden. The Allchar deposit is recognised internationally as the world’s most significant source of lorandite, and the mineral has attracted global scientific interest because it can be used as a natural detector to study the solar neutrino and neutron flux over geological timescales.Wikipedia+2visitkavadarci.com+2 By naming both the robot and the debut track after this mine and mineral, Sefidanis ties the project to a deeper narrative about Macedonian scientific and cultural potential – from underground physics and planetary science to avant-garde digital art.
Visually and mechanically, Alshar embodies the same philosophy of open, collaborative innovation. The robot’s mechatronics are based on accessible platforms such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi, distributed across five computers – three embedded systems integrated into the body and two external machines that assist with processing and control. The torso, head and arms follow the InMoov open-source reference design created by French sculptor Gael Langevin, while the distinctive wings were designed by Macedonian visual artist Zoran Kardula. The clothing is itself a statement: the first Macedonian fashion collection “For Humans and Robots,” created by designer Ana Mitreska, bridging couture and cybernetics on the dance floor.УМНО.МК+2УМНО.МК+2
Behind Alshar stands a broad interdisciplinary team. Reports emphasise the contributions of engineers, artists, sound designers, make-up and costume professionals, as well as students from the University of Information Science and Technology “St. Paul the Apostle” in Ohrid, pupils from the “St. Clement of Ohrid” gymnasium and international Erasmus+ students from several European countries.УМНО.МК+1 This collaboration continues the line of “digital humanity” projects developed by Sefidanis, including the Smart Monument of Grigor Prlichev and the Monument of the Future – interactive installations that fuse heritage, storytelling and advanced technology.УМНО.МК+1
The OhridPress article presenting the online premiere underlined one more important aspect: “Lorandite” is intentionally released as an open invitation. Professor Anis Sefidanis encouraged DJs to freely include the track in their sets, to remix it and to build completely new interpretations, framing the debut as an experiment in human-robot co-creation rather than a closed technological showcase.OhridPress By asking other artists to play with Alshar’s music, Sefidanis positions the robot not as a replacement for human creativity, but as a new instrument – a collaborator that expands what is possible in the club, in the studio and in the broader cultural ecosystem.
For Sefidanis, the story of “Lorandite” marks an important milestone in the company’s journey at the intersection of deep tech and cultural innovation. The Independence Day performance in Rebel Club showed that audiences are ready to accept a humanoid DJ as part of the nightlife experience. The subsequent digital premiere on the renewed OhridPress platform confirmed that local media recognise AI-driven creativity as a headline story, not a curiosity. Together, these moments signal how Alshar – named after a legendary mine that holds clues to the Sun’s secrets – is now helping define a new horizon where robotics, artificial intelligence, music and heritage converge.
In the coming period, Sefidanis plans to continue developing Alshar’s repertoire and capabilities, extending the project into new forms of live performance, educational outreach and interactive installations. “Lorandite” thus stands as both a debut single and a manifesto: proof that a small team from Ohrid can connect local history, cutting-edge AI and global club culture in a single track generated by a humanoid robot.
References / Sources and original publication dates
Reference 1: “Со премиерата на песната ‘Lorandite’ на роботот Alshar by Sefidanis, OhridPress го стартува новиот и подобрен дизајн (Видео)” – OhridPress, 30 September 2024.OhridPress+1
Reference 2: “Сефиданис го создаде Алшар – првиот македонски робот диџеј кој вчера ‘настапи’ во охридски клуб” – Radio MOF, 8 September 2024.Радио МОФ
Reference 3: “Роботот-диџеј Алшар во Охрид пушташе музика за Денот на независноста на Македонија” – Umno.mk, 8 September 2024.УМНО.МК+1
Reference 4: “Првиот македонски робот диџеј вчера ‘настапи’ во охридски клуб!” – Inovativnost.mk, 9 September 2024.Иновативност
Reference 5: “Во недела на OhridPress: TOP вести на неделата” – Inpress / OhridPress weekly round-up featuring the Lorandite premiere on the new OhridPress design, 6 October 2024.inpress.mk
Reference 6: “Allchar deposit (Alshar deposit)” – overview of the Allchar/Alshar mine and the lorandite mineral, with notes on its role in determining the solar neutrino flux, Wikipedia and related scientific sources (e.g. Jovanovski et al., 2019; Pavićević et al., 2010).Wikipedia+2eprints.ugd.edu.mk+2
Reference 7: “Рудник Алшар” and related popular-science features on Alshar and lorandite as a unique Macedonian resource – Visit Kavadarci, Maski Magazin / Faktor and other explanatory texts on the historical and scientific significance of the mine and mineral, various dates 2011–2025.visitkavadarci.com+2maskimagazin.faktor.mk+2
