The London/Bristol-based composer and musician created her single, Separation, as part of her artist residency at the Eden Project.
Separation, released today (February 24), is the first song from Alice’s highly-anticipated EP From The Understory. The track brings the voices of plants to life, exploring our evolutionary journey and connection to the biosphere through a rich arrangement of vocals, electronics and analogue textures.
To help create the track, during her residency Alice spent a week in the Rainforest Biome with her hand-crafted Arduino device recording conductivity data, which fluctuates as water moves around the leaves.
Alice ‘sonified’ this into music, using synthesisers to ‘voice’ variations in the data. This plant music is the foundation of the EP, appearing as the opening electronic bed in Separation and in intricate melodies heard on later tracks.
Sir Tim Smit, Co-founder of the Eden Project and Executive Vice Chair of Eden Project Ltd said: “We were delighted to host Alice Boyd for an artist residency and the premier performance of her music, which was part of our Eden Universe research project with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
“Her music brings together a unique combination of sweet vocal harmonies, throbbing electronic textures and sounds from the Rainforest Biome never before heard by humans. Together these beautifully reframe the urgency of the climate crisis into an opportunity for reconnection with nature.”
Alice said: “Plants are essential for our survival - from the oxygen we breathe, to the food we eat, medicines we take and materials we use. I wanted to make music that deepens our understanding of the entanglement of life on Earth; that humans are a part of nature, not apart from it.
“What better way than by making music with and inspired by the plants at the Eden Project?”
The Eden Universe research project explored how 5G technologies can increase online engagement and help connect people to each other and the living world.
Eden created a range of digital experiences that were tested and trialled amongst different audience groups, including visitors, schools and care homes.
As part of this Alice’s debut performance of From The Understory became the first-ever interactive live-streamed show at Eden. The event was supported by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, aql and Meta Camera.
To present the performance, Eden and aql used 360˚ cameras to create an immersive experience which enabled Alice and her ensemble to connect to audiences across the world.
Alice is joined by five other gifted female/non-binary singers on Separation - Dazey, Emily Izen Row, Issa, XATIVA and zha. Together, their voices create beautiful swelling harmonies, inspired by groups such as Dirty Projectors and Deep Throat Choir. Alice worked with co-producer and mixing engineer Liam Evans (JC Palmer, Lectures) to create the energetic instrumental arrangements.
The EP will also be released on eco-mix vinyl records on April 21 and is available for pre-order now via Bandcamp.
The project was made possible with support from Sound and Music’s New Voices programme, PRS’s Women Make Music grant and Arts Council England’s DYCP grant.
A hand-drawn animated music video by Studio Gruff, a London-based independent animation studio, will be released on Tuesday (February 28). It takes the viewer on an epic journey through geological time, playfully depicting the evolution of surreal animal-plant hybrids from the murky depths of sea to the expansion of life on land.
Separation is available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming sites now.
