Italian composer and sound designer Diego Stocco is world renowned for his innovative approach to making music. Having composed original scores for videos, movies and videogames, the award-winning artist also works with common everyday objects and elements in nature to make music. He has made music from sand, lightbulbs, water and even trees. His original compositions Music From Sand and Music From A Tree have proved to be very popular.
Music From A Tree came about after a particular attractive tree in the backyard caught his eye and he wondered if he could coax music from it. To tune the tree, he picked a fundamental note and tuned the twigs by trimming them with a pencil sharpener. To record the tree music, he used Røde NT6 and NTG-2 microphones, combined with a customized stethoscope. The results are stunning. We caught up with the artist to ask him a few questions about making music from trees.
How do different natural elements influence your music?
Natural sounds are extremely interesting; sometimes they contain patterns and frequencies that can be arranged in musical forms. Also, natural sounds are very alive, with lots of details and colors. What's interesting to me is trying to record the essence of these natural sources and turn them into a playable form.
Why do you incorporate nature into your music?
Nature is very musical, the way I'm using some of its elements helps me learn something new about it. For instance, I didn't know a tree could contain so many different notes and timbres, so now I can appreciate a tree not just for its beauty for also for its musicality. Every tree is different though, and it's an amazing coincidence that the one in my backyard had so many musical elements to play with.
Is your work with natural elements a form of environmental activism?
Not really, the core of this project is totally musical. Maybe the video can somehow spark an interest to see nature as a vast musical entity that surrounds us? I know that there's more out there waiting to be discovered.
Anything you would like to add?
Yes, I've read some concerned comments suggesting that the tree was somehow getting hurt when I was recording it. That's something important that needs to be considered. All the sounds have been recorded in a very vivid and powerful way. The actual level of strength I used is lower that what is perceived from the video. I think it's also useful to keep in mind that trees are very strong, but I'd like to reassure all those who expressed concern about it that I love nature too.
Visit: http://www.diegostocco.com/
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