Creating Music with Plants and Fungi – a Conversation Between Two Biogenic Composers

Biogenic music is a beautiful intersection of art, biology, ecology and technology. It reminds us that music is not just a human invention, but a shared language of life itself, echoing the rhythms and voices of the living world. How might we be changed once we have experienced the voices of the unheard mycorrhizal world through this art form?

Alex H Duncan, who is also known as the 'Composer In The Woods', returns for another fascinating exploration into his music making with plants and fungi, this time accompanied by film and TV composer Adrian Carson-Smith. These composers offer us the plants’ magical viewpoint through sounds they have gathered via midi data.

They will discuss the implications to both artists and listeners of music co-produced across species. Do the new structures change our ways to listen to it, or create it?  Will it lead to a greater understanding of nature and will we have less fear of uncontrollable musical patterns that lead to a feeling of oneness with nature?  What does it mean to create music that has been described as “like hearing the Earth being formed”?

As a passionate plant advocate who gives the living green world a voice when we are in desperate need of its undoubtable wisdom, Alex discusses his ideas and creative developments with Adrian, who also writes music from the mycorrhizosphere and beyond. Both are deeply immersed in the developing art form of writing music that moves away from human-led creation. Read more about his work here. 

Adrian has been a professional composer of film and TV music for the past three decades, and in recent years he has moved into writing music based purely on plant data. You can find out more about his work here and listen to some of his work here.

Alex: “Deep below us great things are happening. As you listen, imagine travelling these networks, moving beneath the busyness above, deep into the vast lava flows and back through time. Eventually, it’s where we go and it’s where we came from.”                                 

This event includes a Q&A.

Online, via Zoom

Tickets £10 which includes a recording of the live event.

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