It is often said that Nature has it’s own weird and wonderful sounds, and now through an ingenious invention we can ‘listen’ to the sound created by tree rings.

Bartholomäus Traubeck pioneered the technique you can hear on this excerpt from his record Years, created in 2011. He was innovative in designing a way in which tree rings could actually be ‘listened to’ and this record features seven recordings, all from different Austrian trees including Oak, Maple, Walnut, and Beech.
What you can actually hear in this case is an Ash tree’s year ring data. Each tree sounds vastly different and unique as the sound depends upon a variety of parameters such as the strength of the wood in question, the thickness and the rate of growth of each individual tree. Also the appearance of each wood has an effect, for example the colour and texture all have their own musical contribution to the overall sound.
The tree rings are being actually being translated into the language of music, as opposed to simply playing musical notes per se themselves. Traubeck’s record player is ground breaking, totally original and an amazing one-of-a-kind piece of equipment which employs a PlayStation Eye Camera He also utilized a stepper motor attached to the more traditional record player control arm.

It in turn relays the data collected onto a computer with a special program called Ableton Live. The result is an incredible piano track, and in the case of the Ash, a very mystical and eerie one.
Traubeck has been ingenious in designing and perfecting this technique - who would have ever thought that a slice of tree trunk would ever translate into such stunning and original music. What other musical delights is nature hiding from us …….

Click to see the video below :

Sources/Credits :
http://traubeck.com/years/
http://expandedconsciousness.com/