Plants be the new music artists

Wersquove all studied basic plant processes such as photosynthesis respiration and transpiration But did you know that plants can also make music Yes you read that right Notes by Nature the worldrsquos first plant album was launched earlier this yearOlive plant and coconut saplingYash Kulshrestha and Ananda Sen the national creative heads of a t o m network are behind it ldquoYash contacted me about a year ago with an idea for an ad campaign for Vatika UAE and we decided to make a meditative music album using plantsrdquo says Sharukh Makani the albumrsquos music producer They began by borrowing five plants from a local plant vendor a cactus a lemon an almond an olive and a coconut They also acquired a device that converts the pulse of a plant into music and created five tracks named Hudu Bliss Aman Serenity and Nirvana corresponding with the plants ldquoSince it was such an alien concept and a device that we hadnrsquot even heard of until a while ago it took my friend Mehar Chumble my comusic producer and myself about two weeks to understand the functionality settings and recording techniques to start tracking for the albumrdquo Makani saysSharukh Makani music producer and composerThey needed to use different methods to record each track and each plant because the music dispensed changed depending on the plantsrsquo mood ldquoWersquod sometimes let the plants sing for minutes at a time then pick the section that sounded musical and catchy to us Wersquod have to layer it and have the plant sing over it again We used digital software to extract specific sections melodies grooves beats or rhythms from what the plants had given us Wersquod also water a plant while it was being recorded to add variation to the music Some sections were recorded while the plant was in direct sunlight and others at night We would then repeat this process until the track sounded enjoyablerdquo Makani explains One of their biggest obstacles was getting a steady tempo for the tracks and the composers had to search for the section that sounded the most coherent and consistent At the same time they didnrsquot want to interfere with the plantsrsquo musicmaking process It took them over six months to bring Notes by Nature to fruition One Tree Planted a nonprofit organisation will plant a tree for every 1000 plays of the album So the more you listen the greener the world becomesCactusHow it worksThe music is relaxing and calming enough for repeated listens and it might even help you fall asleep It can be played as background music while meditating and also while participating in a fitness activity The cactus audio was the most enjoyable because it had variations and was slightly more upbeat than the others The lemon almond olive and coconut audios were more soothing making them ideal to accompany meditation or workWhat Notes by NatureWhere Spotify Apple Music YouTube and SoundCloud