Midnight Mushroom Music

A colleague is experimenting with Cordyceps, growing them on rice... Several jars of fruiting bodies so I thought why not record some biodata! Here it is.. curious.

This was my last day in the Blue Mountains and I had to record biodata from a Mountain Blue Gum, Eucalyptus deanei as well as a Grey Gum, Eucalyptus cypellocarpa. Not too far from BigCi the soil changes to where these particular beauties thrive. What's more, is there is what looks to be a field of them within the Dharma Cloud Monastery an approximate 40-hour trek northeast. Incredibly beautiful la...

Tuesday evening, Oct 8th I was generously invited to visit (& record biodata if possible) the Glowworms residing in a section of Rainforest looked after by Lionel Buckett, founder/builder of http://lovecabins.com.au/ (check out his amazing cabins & Tree House!!). So, Glowworms can now be marked off the bucket list! What I was not aware of, however, is Glowworms turn into Fungus Gnats!! Ha. :) We a...

Raw Midi biodata recorded from the Eucalyptus haemastoma. I brought it into Ableton for some lite-processing. Added a 'voice' to hear the data. The notes formed what looked like cuneiform. Letters. Maybe, symbols? Do you hear a pattern? Eucalyptus haemastoma, commonly known as scribbly gum, is a species of tree that is endemic in the Sydney region. It has white or silvery grey bark, lance-shaped o...

Its been raining up in the Blue Mountains- which is a good thing! Out early morning Wednesday, Sept 18th and I found giant Cauliflower-like, slightly Lion's Mane-ish fungi under gum trees. Turns out these giant fungus clumps are Laetiporus portentosus. Here's what Wiki has to say: Laetiporus portentosus is a species of polypore fungus in the family Fomitopsidaceae. It is found in South America, Au...

Bio-data recording from a Wollemi clone. Wollemia is a genus of coniferous tree in the family Araucariaceae. Wollemia was only known through fossil records until the Australian species Wollemia nobilis was discovered in 1994 in a temperate rainforest wilderness area of the Wollemi National Park in New South Wales, in a remote series of narrow, steep-sided sandstone gorges 150 km north-west of Sydn...

Out collecting biodata I wandered into Wollemi's Gardens of Stone. The Scribbly Gum is a magnificent tree. Its bark is an iridescent blue, graphic as if someone painted it camouflage patterns in multiple shades of graphite. The particular Scribbly that called to me grew out of what appeared to be a giant root bulb, split in two at the top, identical twins. Walking around this 'bulb' I discovered t...

Early morning biodata recordings of Banksia serrata aka Old Man Banksia/Saw-tooth Banksia Artist residency 16, August 2019 to 16, October 2019. Blue Mountains World Heritage site Wollemi National Park. 2019 Bigci Environmental Award. @MothAntler

This morning I headed out around 4:30/5am to explore the Zig Zag path in South Titirangi. The hike down was easy... I was in search of Kauri. WikiP says: Agathis australis, commonly known by its Māori name kauri, is a coniferous tree of Araucariaceae in the genus Agathis, found north of 38°S in the northern districts of New Zealand's North Island. Kauri forests are among the most ancient in the wo...

Sunrise at Bigci recording the Scarlets.

Last night it rained (finally!) leaving the earth wet this morning so, I took an early walk down to the Scarlet fungi to record their bio-data. Curious birds chirped, trilled and squawked at me while I placed the electrodes onto the mushrooms. That said, this recording is from Ganoderma steyaertanum, a Tasmanian clone. I am currently experimenting with the steyaertanum mycelium towards an upcoming...

Coming to you from the Blue Mountains in NSW Australia! I am excited to have made it at long last. A recipient of the BigCi Environmental award I am residing at the edge of Wollemi National Park. The trees here are spectacular! This morning I went on a short walk to a beautiful red gum to test out new coding I've recently added to one of the Bio-Sonification modules I brought along with me. Terres...

Today Andrei and I were interviewed by Ground magazine quarterly (Ontario Association of Architecture) During the interview mycelium was softly playing in the background. Later in we hooked up the writer and then ourselves to each other. Look for our interview in the Fall issue of Ground (Toronto). Thanks for listening :) Image AI created. Amanita crossbred with a terrier

It feels like forever! After the Mycelium Martian Dome, prototype 1,0 went up we needed some serious downtime to recoup. We left a panel growing at the Dressler's for over two weeks now so, we thought we better check-in! Out of its growing chamber, it was slowly drying. It felt only a day or two out and hyphae could be seen growing in valleys and crevices. I gently nestled the electrodes down into...

Saturday afternoon, June 29th 2019 and the Mycelium Brain over in the MOCA studio is still alive and growing! It is incredibly active. I hooked the module up to an Eowave Domino (droneOrama!) and eventually brought that MIDI data through a Volca fm with the always amazing Strymon Blue Sky- courtesy of Moog Audio Toronto. Mark your calendars for Vector Festival July 11-14 2019. July 14, 1PM to 4PM...

'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' A central theme of the "Ozymandias" poems (excerpt here by Shelley) is the inevitable decline of rulers with their pretensions to greatness. Physarum polycephalum does not see Humans as ruler, nor their pretensions.

Apologies for a couple missed evenings. Andrei and I have been contemplating our losses. Andrei's father last year, my mother this year along with everything else. Positive thoughts, too. Many projects and changing the code on our bio-sonification modules- which you hear here. Andrei and I hooked up to each other, our bio-data simultaneously chugging through the MIDI channels, making sounds. Sirin...

Electrodes placed on my scalp, MIDI out to Mother 32 running into various Eurorack modules; Karl Marx, Braids, Clouds, Black Hole and some Make Noise.. It has been a difficult week. Wondered what that might sound like.

Listening to the Mycelium sculpture that was grown for GrowOp 2019 every other day, it changes. This episode is a bit Bjork + Matmos = some high pitched pings so, watch out if you're wearing headphones! Oh and May the 4th be with you! :) Scanning electron mage taken from Lichen growing on a birch branch that I found.

Today has been a hell of a day! Positive/Negative/in-between. Regardless, tonight the Ganoderma lucidum is very active. Brought the midi biodata through the Grandmother and then decided to simply bring it through Ableton. Thanks for listening!

Grow Op 2019 installation at the Gladstone. The Mycelium Shrine; Primordia was created. An immersive environment where visitors could listen to the Mycelium and commune with it. April 17-21st at the Gladstone Hotel, Toronto Room 206 Primordia won the GrowOp Jury Award! For Grow Op: ENERGY I created an immersive underground environment. Visitors could enter the world of Mycelium and interact with i...

During my residency at MoCA I'm exploring myco-remediation, growing mycelium sculptures, on agar plates, in jars, in bags... Last night Andrei and I hooked up ourselves and mycelium to experiment with some ideas we have for the bio-sonification at Grow Op April 17-21 2019. We brought midi into 2 Mothers and a Minitaur, reverb via a T2 pedal. We are also constructing touch-pads for visitors into th...

March 31st. Blizzard outside, mycelium inside. First bio-sonification recording during the MoCA residency. A bit strange.. the mycelium was very active, incredibly buzzy- toned it down a bit with a Lowpass filter.

Workshop at U of T March 7th. Nanotopia shared our Bio-Sonification studies with Masters and PHD students. During the last half of the workshop we set electrodes onto our Hosta undulata.

Bio-sonification during York Universities 1st annual Makers Fair. Spider plant hooked up sending its bio-data into Ableton. We added some Bach style arpeggiator, a little delay and lowered pitch -12 ;) We also had some amazing volunteers allow us to hook em up! 12 kids completed a circuit. Lots of fun.