Spring has definitely arrived now; however all my energy is currently on the creation of musical pieces inspired by the amino acid and dna sequences of various plants in the garden situated around the Oriental Pond.
Each composition is taking me a full week to do, beginning with collecting the genomic data from the EBI and Entrez databases and then finding out general information about the plant in question. Based on this, I then choose a musical scale or tonality to base the composition on and attribute the scientific data to, and then work to create the actual sounds that will be used. After this, it is a matter of making musical choices and sonic manipulations to create something which sounds ‘pleasing’ and yet has an identity which retains a connection to the original data.
An interesting challenge is trying to visualise how the final work will sound to visitors to the garden. Whilst in my studio I sit in the midst of a surround sound set up, the final composition will be listened to from outside of the listening circle as the speakers will be placed around the pond.
