You might think burbling brooks, buzzing bees, chirping birds. But for creators at the forefront of experimental tech that lets them make music with mushrooms, nature sounds like the otherworldly boops and beeps of a synthesizer.
Musician and former biologist Tarun Nayar never expected his throwaway TikTok videos playing around with the phenomenon called biodata sonification to go viral. He started out by hooking plants up to a modular synth to transform their bioelectrical signals into electronic music. The tech works on any living organism, from flowers to apples to human beings. But it’s the hypnotic tone of mushrooms currently spreading like spores.
“It’s a beautiful practice of connecting and collaborating with nature,” Nayar says of the niche new genre of music that has earned him more than. His most popular mushroom music videos have tens of millions of views. “It demonstrates, in a very immediate way, how mushrooms are alive like we are alive.”
To be clear, the mushrooms aren’t making the music themselves, or deliberately choosing which notes we hear . The devices only translate biological processes into frequencies we can turn into music. But the popularity of mushroom music speaks to a larger cultural wave inspired by these mysterious organisms that have remained in the shadows for far too long.
The artistic interpretations of these curious data streams are significant as well. They add yet another layer to this mushrooming moment in human history.Mycologist Giuliana Furci, founder of the nonprofit Fungi Foundation, which focuses on fungal exploration and conservation, loves how the accessible, universal language of music can bring everyday people closer to these mind-blowing organisms.