The man who makes mushrooms sings

Tarun Nair Photo Credit: Mark Vansch

As the eager spectators listened attentively, the moonlit evening was filled with the music of plants and mushrooms, an experience entirely new to many.

Canadian biologist-turned-musician Tarun Nair, who can make mushrooms and plants sing, was recently at the Nisarg Art Hub in Angamaly as part of his India tour.

Tarun is making music from plants, mushrooms and even trees by harnessing their electrical impulses and interpreting them musically. An experiment that evolved during the pandemic years, Tarun developed it into a full-time project, Modern Biology, in 2021, where he connected plants to synthesizers, allowing humans to hear changes in their bioelectric activity as music. Found. It was his way of connecting with the natural world, says Tarun.

For a man who loved synthesizers and nature, he was considering ways to bring the two together. He soon began taking his performances out into nature and improvising with natural sound landscapes. For this he also created his own analog synthesizer.

Tarun Nair Photo Credit: Muita

“It’s like connecting a plant/mushroom to a lie detector device, adapted for use by plants and fungi, and listening to their electrical impulse flow,” he says. Tarun then improvises these sounds, quantizes them (aligns the notes and rhythms to a timbre) and what emerges is a unique symphony. The tunes may be unconventional, but that’s what has won them fans from all over the world.

Four years into his project, Tarun has traveled with his plant music, delighting people wherever he goes. He posted his experiments regularly on social media platforms, which led him to realize that music resonated with people. In 2021, Tarun released an album of plant music, featuring music made from hemlock, blackberry, apple trees, Japanese maple, and an adler from Fairy Creek, an old growth forest on Vancouver Island.

He often goes to the forest, hiding in the trees and bushes and listening to their voices; He says this is a constant inspiration. Tarun has also experimented with flowers and fruits, such as hibiscus, rambutan, bird of paradise and even pineapple.

The concerts are not rehearsed, as the music is in accordance with the natural vibrations of a place and its flora and fungi.

Tarun Nair Photo Credit: C.Pinget

In 2023, when he first came to India for the Echoes of Earth festival in Bengaluru, he played music with a giant ficus tree. This year Tarun tried it again, connecting electrical wires to the tree and connecting it to the synth.

A Canadian of Indian origin, Tarun is a trained biologist. He received formal training in Indian classical music since childhood and learned the tabla in Mumbai. He has collaborated with artist Diljit Dosanjh for a track in his album Moonchild Era.

Tarun says he delights in and is constantly inspired by the musical impulses in the natural world. “This world is so alive and I’m just ready to listen to their music and embrace it as an artist. I hope experiments like this will help people reconnect with nature,” he added.