Listen carefully. What do you hear? Crickets chirping on a dark night? Birds singing in unison? Frogs croaking in spring? Or perhaps the gentle sound of a breeze rustling through leaves? These are the familiar sounds of nature that we often take for granted. But have you ever stopped to listen to a tree trunk? Yes, you read that right – a tree trunk.
When we talk about listening to a tree trunk, we’re actually referring to the rings inside it. We know that these rings hold valuable information about a tree’s life, such as its age and the conditions it grew in. But have you ever thought of these tightly packed circles as a larger version of a vinyl record? Well, the artist Bartholomaus Traubeck did. He was curious to discover what these rings would “say,” so he invented a unique record player that could interpret the colors and textures of the rings into music.
You might be wondering how such a thing could be possible. Traubeck’s “record player” uses light to capture the colors and textures of the rings within a tree’s cross-section and then translates them into musical notes and instruments.
It may sound like something out of a science fiction movie, but the technology behind it is surprisingly simple. Using a PlayStation Eye camera and a motor for the arm of the record player, Traubeck collected the data, which was then transferred to a computer. Through a program called Ableton Live, the data was transformed into a piano track.
The video below gives you a glimpse of what nature sounds like through Traubeck’s record player. If you’re expecting crackling sounds or random noises, think again. While these “songs” may not adhere to traditional harmonies and chords, they possess an eerie beauty. They evoke memories of the haunting background music that accompanied silent movies.
Each tree’s rings are unique, giving each tree its own song. What Traubeck has accomplished is nothing short of creating a boundless library of one-of-a-kind records. It’s a completely new way to experience and appreciate the wonders of
