Midnight Mushroom Music

The Dye Maker

- Composed by:

Phaeolus schweinitzii for Music Works magazine

- The biodata of Phaeolus schweinitzii (common name: the Dye Maker’s polypore) was recorded during a Fall foray with the Mycological Society of Toronto at Dufferin forest, Mansfield ON 2019. MIDI translation took place in Toronto at co:Lab/nanopod studio

Performed by: Nanotopia (Tosca Terán, Andrei Gravelle) who brought the midi translation of the biodata into Ableton Live and gave Phaeolus schweinitzii a timbral voice.

The challenge to collaborating with non-human organisms is to try to minimize the sense of our own involvement in the process.

While I mediate the biodata gathered to temper it to determinant pitches and give it a timbral voice, I feel that the sense of rhythm and pattern captured in my field recordings represent a unique aspect of the fungi. While the biodata can sometimes be a starting point for further development, I chose this track, which has had minimal intervention on our part to convey the richness of the source material I gathered and hope that it creates inspiration and dialogue for not only new creative processes but to awaken new ways of seeing the diversity of life on our planet and lead to further multi-species entanglements.

- © info: https://www.nanotopia.net/single-project

Generative Patching by Mycelium Network

Solstice Live Stream from

June 20th, 2020 5:30 PM EDT

Into the New Nature

Travelling without moving into the Mycelium Network with Nanotopia.

Mycelium bio-sonification through modular synthesis. Electrodes are placed within Ganoderma lucidum aka Reishi. The electrodes detect micro fluctuations in conductivity between 1000 t0 100000 of a second. This biodata is then translated to MIDI & CV enabling Humans to hear the Mycelium.

Relax into the Mycelium Network...

Prior to lift-off we will show our set-up and then fade into reactive TouchDesigner visuals. Thank you for tuning in.

Generative TouchDesigner visuals react/respond to the mycelium biodata.

Spaceship controls:

Flute/Pluck/Bow/Percussive sounds= Mutable instruments Plaits & clones: Atom & Piques

Paths, branches, roots = Qu-Bit's amazing Bloom (fractal sequencer)

Make Noise= Morphagene, René, Tempi, Pressure Points

Along with= Pittsburgh Instruments, Doepfer, Moog(s), Korg (keystep to Mother32), Erica Synths.

Visuals both chance & purposeful:

Mermaid painting= @sarah_gravel on insta

Images used in TouchDesigner Mycelium network:

Tardigrade footage= @atinyworldorg on insta/twitter

NASA, Planet Earth, nanotopia.

Follow us on Instagram: @nanotopia_net @MothAntler @Nanotopian

Support artistic efforts: https://www.patreon.com/nanotopia_net

Live stream Midnight Mushroom Music • May 30th, 2020

Ganoderma lucidum biodata recorded in realtime - translated into MIDI & CV into Mutable Instruments Yarns which in turn sent this data into various Synth voices: Plaits, Braids, Clouds, Mother32, Erica synths Black Wave Table and more... contemplative. The Mycelium sounds mutated over time into some ear piercers and pitch shifts, we just allowed it to do its thing. Reactive/generative TouchDesigner visuals were created to go along with the live stream and can be viewed on Instagram (10+min clip) @MothAntler or Youtube: https://youtu.be/HQkNj5YA9yQ

Thanks for tuning into the Mycelium Network!

Meant to be a live stream to Instagram (@nanopodstudio) there was a technical melt-down of sorts (phone related) so, we had to cancel. Meanwhile, we were recording (thank the fungi!) and here it is.

Pleurotus ostreatus that has grown into/around sawdust w/coffee grounds had electrodes placed on to it about a week or so back.. time being a crazy thing during our self-isolating COVID-19 curve flattening regime!

Mycelium has grown over and around the electrodes and has started pinning! We get asked a lot about the mycelium 'generating' music so, I decided to conduct a bit of a walk-thru on one of our set-ups. Mycelium 'playing' our Eurorack.

MIDI: our Bio-Sonification modules (we sell them & offer kits) takes MIDI out into (??) a synthesizer, and digital synth app, or other devices that can accept MIDI. The module itself does not make sound, it read micro-fluctuations in conductivity and sends out MIDI notes and/or controls. This data can be used as CV(control voltage) which can then be sent out into our Eurorack modules via Patch Cables- woo hoo!! Here's where the fun begins!

While we are definitely not the first to 'listen' to plants, we are the first to record fungi in this manner and run with it. Unless there is someone else out there we have yet to meet!?

In the field we tend to record raw bio-data and later turn this data into 'music'. It is simply an easier way to store large files when trekking around. Back in our studio we can work with synths and sequencers, surreal guitar pedals and other random noise making devices that accept MIDI or CV in.

A step x step for this particular sound:

The Oyster mushroom mycelium was plugged into a BASTL 1983. The 1983 (https://bastl-instruments.com/eurorack/modules/1983)is a polyphonic MIDI to CV interface with creative voice allocation and automatic tuning capabilities. There are four channels of CV and GATE outputs that can be configured in various Layouts, such as hybrid splits between monophonic and polyphonic voices or velocity, Control Change, aftertouch, triggers, clock or reset.

This means we could take the MIDI notes (which general trigger 1 note at a time, not polyphonic) and send the info out into different Oscillators and Wave Shapers. Which we totally did.

CV/Gate was taken out from the 1983 into a Moog Mother32, an Erica Synths Black Wavetable VCO, Mutable Instruments Braids, and the Doepher A111-5.

At around 1:58 in we switched mushrooms from Pleurotus to Ganoderma and later, back to the Pleurotus- which severely changed pitch once the container holding the Ganoderma was opened. We wondered what the Peurotus sensed, why did the sound change so noticeably? Was it due to the Pleurotus mycelium being unable to locate the Ganoderma mycelium? They can both be found populating in the same forests, or even neighbouring trees so, what is going on here? The Ganoderma did not audibly seem to care about the Pleurotus.

The only time I've encountered similar was when Ganoderma came into contact with Physarum polycephalum. There was a distinctive battle cry from the Ganoderma - or what we like to infer to the sound change.

How are we collaborating with the mycelium?

In this instance the Eurorack set-up is the collaboration. By sending the MIDI notes/controls out into the other modules. Other than that- the sounds are the mushrooms.

Feel free to DM us with any questions concerning our set-up, modules, kits, mycelium or collaboration!

Enjoy :)

Ahoy! Some listeners of 28/03/20's live stream asked what the fungi were contributing so, we isolated the layer to share here!

Growing mycorrhizal threads pushed through MicroFreak & Particle into Live and out the donut hole.

Headphones always.

Monster Zero is in the works!

I believe I've mentioned looking into Phoneme databases, to use with the fungi biodata? Well, here we have some mycorrhizal fungi triggering numbers. As if it is counting out otherworldly lottery numbers, or perhaps numerical sequence end dates? ;p Actually, it is simpler than that! I was gifted a MicroFreak (Arturia)for use in an upcoming installation. This little synth has so many features! It is super fun, you can sculpt your own custom sounds, it is polyphonic, etc., etc. Here I had the fungi triggering a counting sequence, randomly. Fed into a Red Panda Particle (LOVE!). Meanwhile, I continue my research into phoneme bio-sonification. :) Thanks for stopping by! XO

Remember how everyone seemingly got all up on Grimes for saying AI will replace musicians? Well, actually that may not have been her exact wording or sentiment, however, if the Age of Spiritual Machines is soon then Grimes may not be too far from the truth (IMHO). AI has definitely played into my curious imagination since picking up and reading my first Science Fiction story. So, for the past several years I have, behind the scenes been studying and taking workshops in Machine Learning. In 2003 I created Transgenic Morphosis with collaborators/artists, Steve Storz (storzart.com) and Andrei Gravelle. Not really thinking about it at the time we built pods that highly resembled what would later hit the market as Oculus Rift headsets. Ours, however, encased Super 8 loops, and stereoscopic images (it was '03 after all). Not too long after than installation, I dove into a Transhumanist movement and read more Kurzweil, Negroponte.. Gibson ;p I guess my thoughts here are: I've been studying ML/AI since learning html/java/action script and learning about Jaron Lanier.

Fungal AI was created from biodata collected from mycelium. Bio-sonification through Ableton Live then given to an AI that took the rendered bio-sonification as an influence, and through random zeros and ones delicately spat out this composition (so to speak). I then brought this new data into Live and layered over the original biodata, added some delay and reverb here and there - don't judge me! It's a start ;p Thanks for listening.

Pleurr by Mycelium Network