I have composed the score to “The Nature of Things” as part of Enlighten Festival 2025 in Canberra
The work featured a 15 channel soundscape with speakers hidden in the trees, comprised of recordings made by using ultra-sensitive microphones and electromagnetic sensors, recordings were captured from trees around Australia —revealing the subtle movements of water, the groans of shifting bark, and the unseen electrical signals emitted. Each tree’s signature pattern, influenced by sunlight and rain, was transformed into MIDI, creating an organic, evolving composition that bridges the natural world and human sound design.
As well as the 1 hour cycle being scored, the creature “Fauna” had it’s own sound system on board it’s rig, and I sound designed vocalisations and body movements to go along with the puppetry, all activated wirelessly by an ipad system which a puppeteer could control
Mother Nature invites you to meet her giant friends, though they may appear in unexpected places—and they won’t be here for long. Who will you discover on your journey through this magical forest?
As the sun dips below the horizon, come meet a majestic, iridescent giant—ancient as the earth— who has made this forest home. With every step, this guardian of nature summons her friends—endangered creatures in search of a place to call home.
Example of Responsive sound being triggered by the wireless system
Tree listening
For this project I made recordings of trees using a combination of very sensitive microphones and electromagnetic readings in prep for a new work by ERTH – the idea is to have the score composed of sounds and biometric recordings produced by the trees to be played back in a park full of very old elms. Thanks to the arborists at Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney and Mt Tomah botanic gardens for your generosity and ERTH
The trees were recorded using a few extremely sensitive microphones – one a condenser contact mic and the other a geophone which is specially designed in order to record very quiet sounds in the earth. The microphone was placed on the bark in order to hear the very subtle sound of water transfer through the tree as well as strains and groans as the tree shifts in the wind
Another device was placed on the tree, which is designed to pick up sensitive electromagnetic impulses from living things – similar to a human EEG Brainwave reader – but this one is tuned to the frequencies that trees put out.
Each tree has its own signature biometric pattern as I have discovered from taking recording of dozens of trees – they are also affected by sunlight and rain – where they become more active.
This data or information is then converted to MIDI – which is a format where I can convert the data to music information, or notes. I then choose an “instrument” or sound for the notes to be played back as – which results in what you are hearing
