Bachman Will Release The Witness Tree on October 2
The project uses biodata sonification to translate tree signals into music for a new album and film.
Updated on Sept. 23, 2026 in Botany
Live Poll
Do you believe art is an effective tool for communicating the impacts of environmental change?
Musician Daniel Bachman will release a nearly two-hour album and documentary titled The Witness Tree on October 2, 2026. The project features collaborations with 16 individual trees across Virginia.
Why it matters
The work aims to capture historical narratives and the environmental impacts of climate breakdown through cross-disciplinary art. It highlights the intersection of ecological data and musical expression as a medium for documentation.
The production spans nearly two hours of audio derived from 16 trees using a biodata sonification device. This system translates biological electrical data into musical output, supplemented by the artist's guitar and MIDI synthesis of historical texts.
The players
Daniel Bachman
A musician and experimental composer who has produced 14 full-length records since 2011 focusing on unconventional instrumentation.
The details
Bachman utilized a biodata sonification device—an interface that converts bio-electric impulses from organic matter into readable digital signals—to generate the project's soundscape. He augmented these recordings with text-to-binary-to-MIDI synthesis, a process that encodes historical writings into Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) signals to create melodic patterns. The recordings were conducted in the field between November 2024 and June 2026 across diverse Virginia habitats.
Timeline
Bachman has released 14 full-length records since 2011.
Field recording for the project occurred from November 13, 2024, to June 24, 2026.
The Witness Tree film and album release is scheduled for October 2, 2026.
The Tech Race
This project follows a pattern set by research programs like the University of Virginia's Environmental Resilience Institute, which utilize creative expression to communicate environmental data. It sits within a growing field of bio-art that attempts to bridge the gap between biological signaling and human-readable narrative.
Listeners and viewers will be able to access the two-hour album and documentary on October 2, 2026. The work is designed to be accessible to audiences interested in environmental documentation and experimental musical compositions.
The takeaway
The project demonstrates how biodata sonification can be used to archive natural and historical records in an era of climate change. Watch for the October 2 release to evaluate how effectively the technical synthesis of tree data bridges the gap between biological signals and listener engagement.
Further reading
Explore more projects at the intersection of nature and data in our Botany section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Guitar International Magazine.
Live Poll
Do you believe art is an effective tool for communicating the impacts of environmental change?
