Off The Record

He Puts a Ring from a Tree Trunk on a Record Player, But Wait Till You Hear The Sound… WOW

Published on July 30, 2024

Nature is full of beauty, ranging from the animal kingdom to the plant kingdom. Most people enjoy what they observe in nature, but not many stop to enjoy what nature has to offer in terms of sounds.

The sound of a light breeze blowing through the leaves, the chorus of birdsong, the croaking of spring frogs, or the sound of crickets chirping on a gloomy night.

While it may seem simple to listen for them, have you ever considered listening to a tree trunk? A tree trunk—you read that right!

This refers, in this case, to the rings seen inside tree trunks. It is common knowledge that a tree’s rings may reveal a great deal about the tree, chiefly about the water content of the tree at each stage of its life.

But have you ever felt that the closely spaced circles resembled a bigger vinyl record? At least that’s what artist Bartholomaus Traubeck believed.

He created a kind of record player that scans the color and texture variations of the rings inside the cross-section of a tree trunk because he was intrigued to know what those rings would “say.”

It converts the rings into audible sounds—you could call it music.

How on earth is this even feasible? Traubeck’s “record player” converts the color and texture changes in a tree’s rings into musical notes and instruments by means of light. Though the technology behind it seems like something from a science fiction film, there’s nothing out of the ordinary or classified as top secret.

All it actually took was a basic motor for the record player’s arm and a PlayStation eye camera. The camera initially gathered the data, which was subsequently moved to a computer.

Ableton Live was used to evaluate the data and create a piano track.

Through Traubeck’s record player, you may hear what nature sounds like in this video.

You’re mistaken if you believe you will hear a lot of crackling or other sounds.

These “songs” have an eerie beauty despite not having conventional harmonies and chords.

It makes you think of the soundtrack you used to hear when seeing a terrifying movie back in the silent film era.

Each tree has its own sound because each tree has a unique set of rings. What this artist has accomplished is simply to build an infinite collection of unique records.

What a novel perspective on nature—or rather, a fresh way of listening to it.