Nature’s Hidden Symphony: Listening to Tree Rings

Nature’s beauty isn’t just visual; it’s also audible, though often overlooked. While we’re familiar with sounds like crickets at night or birds singing, few think about listening to a tree trunk. Artist Bartholomaus Traubeck has done just that, creating a unique way to hear the hidden sounds of nature by playing tree rings like a vinyl record.

Traubeck’s invention interprets the rings inside a tree trunk, which tell a lot about a tree’s history, into music. He thought the tightly packed circles looked like a vinyl record and wondered what they might “say.” His record player uses light to read the color and texture variations of the tree rings, converting them into musical notes.
Using a PlayStation eye camera and a motor, the data from the rings is transferred to a computer. With a program called Ableton Live, this data becomes a piano track. The resulting music isn’t traditional but is “eerily beautiful,” resembling silent movie background scores.

Each tree’s rings are unique, meaning every tree has its own song. Traubeck has created a limitless library of one-of-a-kind records, offering a new way to listen to nature.