Tarun Nayar
Tarun, you’re a former biologist, but what drew your inspiration to combine biology and sound for the creation of plant music?
Tarun
"I mean, honestly, it was not intentional. It was the culmination of just playing music and thinking about nature. I spent most of the pandemic up in the northern Gulf Islands, I have a little cabin out there, and I was just with all my synthesizers out in nature."
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The video that went viral was the one where you create music with synthesizers and mushrooms. Mushrooms are known to be healing and spiritual. Would you say there’s a sense of spirituality in what you do?
Tarun
"Yeah, I like to think of what I do as some sort of a meeting place between biology, sound, and spirituality. My background is Indian, and the science of vibration is something very profound in the East."
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You started touring as Modern Biology this year. Usually, you create these sounds in the comfort of your own space… I’m curious to know how the experience of playing with plants in front of others has been for you?
Tarun
"That’s a great question. Yeah, this is, like, my third show. I think I’m still figuring it out. Turning a 15-second video into a 45-minute set was definitely a challenge, but it’s exciting to dive deeper and make it more experimental."
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Why do you believe it’s important to reconnect back with nature?
Tarun
"The impetus behind this project is about protecting wild spaces. I believe nature is the way back to balance. There’s so much we can learn from sitting with her and listening."
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Could you walk me through the technical process of creating music with bioelectricity and synthesizers?
Tarun
"The way I do it is based on lie detector technology. You send a small current through an organic body like a plant. As bioelectric changes occur, the current translates into note changes in synthesizers."
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MODERN BIOLOGY
Tarun Nayar uses a different approach to make music that sounds quite unlike anything else. With background in Indian classical music and biology he brings together home-built modular synthesizers and other analog equipment to improvise with the natural vibrations of a certain place and time via plant bioelectricity, latent electromagnetic radiation, and even the earth's resonant hum.
Plant Music Vol.1 / Plant Music Vol.2 2021-22.
- Shining Bird of Paradise 03:37
- Rambutan 05:05
- Ginger Flower 06:29
- Mangosteen 05:00
- The prophet 04:05
- A Conversation in the Mountains 02:59
- Mottled Spurge 03:45
- Hibiscus 04:17
- Swordfern in the Morning 04:36
- Apple Tree in the Afternoon 05:24
- Japanese Maple in the Afternoon 03:08
- Fairy Creek Alder in the Evening 03:52
- Hemlock at Night 03:28