Review | By Ed Pinsent / The Sound Projector
Silva Datum Musica | PLEIN AIR
Silva Datum Musica (GRUENREKORDER Gruen 187) by Plein Air has unusual sounds, and it’s an LP that starts out nice, but sadly I soon sensed it’s not really going anywhere. Tim Collins and Reiko Goto have, with the help of other scientists, found a way to process “plant bioacoustics” into sound, much like Michael Prime (a legitimate predecessor who is not even mentioned in the notes) did in the 1990s. They do it with one leaf on one tree at a time, and a number of species / varieties are “played” on this record, one side in Glasgow and another in Cologne. Not to deny the scientific basis for this (I think it’s mostly to do with photosynthesis), and I’m prepared to believe we are hearing a tree “breathing”, and Collins and Goto are serious about their work. […]