The video, via reader Jeff Barnes (Poly4m) captures a live synth jam, The Divide.
Barnes notes that the performance was recorded in a single take. It’s based on a hybrid hardware/software setup, featuring Arturia Keystep Pro, iPad and what looks to be a 1010music Blackbox.
Synthesist and composer Anthony Marinelli shared this video, a collaboration with Joe Patitucci of PlantWave, that explores modular improvisation along with sounds triggered through sonification of plants’ electrical conductivity.
PlantWave is a device that connects to a plant’s leaves and measures changes in electrical conductivity. Those fluctuations are translated into MIDI data, which are translated into musical notes, rhythms, and patterns. It’s more sonification of signals you would not normally be aware of, than the plant ‘playing’ music.
Here’s what Marinelli has to say about it:
“In this special session, I’m improvising on the legendary 1969 Moog IIIc “Plantasia” Modular Synthesizer—the same model used on Mort Garson’s Mother Earth’s Plantasia—along with my Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave, while the plants themselves generate melodies through PlantWave.
As PlantWave transforms real-time electrical signals from the plants into beautiful, evolving musical patterns, I’m tuning in, responding, and improvising on the Moog IIIc and 3rd Wave—matching their phrases with my own melodies and rhythms. Every moment emerges organically, completely unique, and impossible to recreate the same way twice.
This is a rare combination of vintage analog synthesis, modern wavetable power, plant-generated musical data, and real-time human improvisation. I hope you enjoy this unique collaboration between nature and machines.”
The video captures a live performance by Silver Galaxy at Synthesizer Museum Berlin, 6th of May 2025.
Silver Galaxy is Dennis Slypen: electric guitar & Anna-Maria Van Reusel: synthesizers.
Timings:
0:00:00 Intro, Nocturnal
0:34:26 Soliton
