Bartholomäus Traubeck - "Fraxinus (Ash)"

Gargantuan he lay crook-necked in the field under the stars. Worried about his heart, he was unable to sleep -- again. It had been restless nights for weeks now this was the new normal. Unable to fit in a regular house he would sleep in the rain. Walking simply north away from everyone who now hated him away from everyone entirely. He had been told as a boy that he had a weak heart and not to over-exert not to over-indulge. His whole damn life had been an exercise in moderation and this was the result: growing 8x his size in as many weeks. Despite caloric restriction hell starving himself he just kept growing. His clothes were first to go then the furniture. He couldn't stay in the house after a week it was like trying to climb into a shoebox and close the lid just to say hello to your wife. Bea. Bea was heaven on earth. But when the growing started she quickly became worried about the baby as if the baby were the one growing but it wasn't it was him. Bea seemed to blame him which was understandable it was baffling and no one knew who or what to blame. But that was not the issue for him anymore it was what to do. He walked so much every day sometimes all night. He had stolen a circus tent a week ago in the middle of the night to use as a blanket. As he was leaving he stopped to look at the rides dewy and solitary and he batted one the cars of the ferris wheel with the tip of his finger like it were a miniature and he thought I could snap this off. And he thought that even when he was little well normal there was something somewhere that was thinking that about him. I could snap this off. His heart. Lying crook-necked in the field under the stars he squinted to listen for it but instead heard the wind and the flap of the tent on his foot and the tiny tiny stream.

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About the album: A tree's year rings are analysed for their strength, thickness and rate of growth. This data serves as basis for a generative process that outputs piano music. It is mapped to a scale which is again defined by the overall appearance of the wood (ranging from dark to light and from strong texture to light texture). The foundation for the music is certainly found in the defined ruleset of programming and hardware setup, but the data acquired from every tree interprets this ruleset very differently.

This record features seven recordings from different Austrian trees. They were generated on the Years installation in Vienna, January 2012.