This article has been reformatted to fit the website design changes since its original posting date.
My friend Allison posted a link on her Facebook wall that had a title that immediately drew me in: “Play The Rings Of A Tree Trunk Like A Record“.
Turns out a student by the name of Bartholomäus Traubeck created a project titled “YEARS” for the specific purpose of converting thin tree rings into music. He did this by using a Playstation Eye Camera, which read and converted the wood grain into information that could be read by the computer. This information was then fed into a laptop running Abelton Live, which converted said information into musical notes. The output, incredibly, is something directly out of a horror film.
So, next time you’re walking alone in the woods, I want you to think of this music and savor the chills running up and down your spine as you realize that trees, were they able to sing, would terrify you.
Enjoy the video below.