If a tree would make music what would it sound like? A bizarre question you would think. But the artist Bartholomaeus Traubeck seems to have found an answer. And it is a truly mesmerising one. He slized up a tree and put it on a vinyl player just like a vinyl.
Listen to this, it gave me goosebumps:
YEARS from Bartholomäus Traubeck on Vimeo.
But the process is a little more complex than that as it is stated on his website:
"A tree’s year rings are analysed for their strength, thickness and rate of growth. This data serves as basis for a generative process that outputs piano music. It is mapped to a scale which is again defined by the overall appearance of the wood (ranging from dark to light and from strong texture to light texture). The foundation for the music is certainly found in the defined ruleset of programming and hardware setup, but the data acquired from every tree interprets this ruleset very differently."
The concept is one of the most striking I have seen and heard in a long time. When you think about it - the "melody" of each ring is totally different from tree to tree - like a finger print is different from human to human. The size and shape of the rings depend on the nutriants in the soil, the purity of the air, the ammount of rain, heat and frost, parasites or fire. Some years a tree grows faster and gets thicker rings - sometimes he nearly starves or dehydrates and the results are finner lines. All of these factors destine the melody we hear.
Music made by a tree - music made my nature. Magic.
Here is the website of the artist: http://traubeck.com/years/