Midnight Mushroom Music

Excerpt-Sixth-Great-Extinction by Mycelium Network

Billions of years ago, two black holes merged in a distant galaxy, warping space-time and triggering a burst of gravitational waves and exotic particle radiation. What would later be referred to as “The Big Bang”. The collision destabilized a nearby planetary system where a super-resilient life form had evolved over many millenia. Chunks of spore-laden rock were flung across interstellar space—one of these rocks was captured by a young solar system where it eventually collided with a young organism.

Well, Danny* has been on our minds lately, somewhat due to working this past Venice Film Festival Immersive as a World Hop tour guide and the cacophony and fun chaos around being an Immersive Tour Guide. Our pal, Manglebird, is the programmer in chief for the Venice Immersive World Hops, primarily on the social VR platform VRChat. VRC allows artists, creatives and Devs to create and publish worlds and experiences to the VRChat global community. From DJ-driven club scenes, deep, immersive, otherworldly environments, and extra-terrestrial realms to physics-breaking realities! You name it; it can likely be found on VRChat. So it is also likely no coincidence that Manglebird's primary avatar is the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland....just a bit demented, looking like they've spent too much tea time with the Mad Hatter. ;) VRChat psychedelia - also known as Shaders, VFX are wild, like taking psychedelics without the nausea and hangover. Anywho, Nanotopia here playing with Euclidean rhythms, sub-harmonics an

Track from Symbiosis/\Dysbiosis: Sentience Scene One: MOTH THE GUESTS FIND THEY HAVE EMERGED FROM CHRYSALIS WITHIN A DENSE FOREST. STRANGE SOUNDS AND LOW-FREQUENCIES SURROUND THEM. A DENSE FOG FILLS THE AREA. AS THE GUESTS COME TO TERMS WITH THEIR NEW SURROUNDINGS, THEY HEAR SINGING-LIKE SOUNDS NOT TOO FAR FROM WHERE THEY STAND THAT DRAW THEIR ATTENTION TO THEIR RIGHT. FLOATING IN THE AIR IS A GIANT SILK MOTH TURNING TO FACE THE GUESTS. THE MOTH'S LARGE BLACK EYES GLEAM AS THEIR ANTLER-LIKE ANTENNAE GENTLY TURN. (surprised to see humans emerging from their chrysalis, Moth wonders aloud) "...How have YOU come to be?" Moth is still slightly confused by these visitors and their sudden appearance; Moth is curious and mumbles a bit to themselves, recognizing that the Guests are Human. MOTH "Well, you are an invasive species after all…" Moth's head tilts as they survey the situation and speak to the Humans, "We are invasive here... We are not meant for here, yet here we are. The forest needs you to SEE. The fo

Symbiosis/\Dysbiosis: Sentience Live performance - Nanotopia pays homage to Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream and one of their favourite movies, Fantastic Planet. Imagine stepping into an old-growth forest, where your EEG data and the bioelectrical activity of living Mycelium influence the world around you. Symbiosis-Dysbiosis: Sentience is a groundbreaking immersive XR installation in which participants embark on a quest to connect with the Mycelial Entity at the heart of the interconnected forest. It offers a unique perspective on the delicate balance between humans and the non-human organisms around us. Embark on an interactive journey where your choices determine the environment's response. Your decisions can lead to either symbiosis, fostering evolution and new awareness, or dysbiosis, resulting in a cascade of adverse outcomes. This dynamic experience places you at the heart of a living, breathing ecosystem, a powerful reminder that everything is interconnected and that your actions matter. Symbiosis/

A start into Jamuary22 trying out a 3 patch challenge from Comparative Irrelevance. Maths/STØ/Rings only here we do not use the STØ (bc we do not own one) in its place we used the VCO side of a Maneco Labs Grone Drone.. with a short visit from a Mother 32. Things grow dark fairly quickly, this is the way of the Grone! Letting go of 2021 heading into the future.. output just as time turned.

Mycelia premiered as the opening performance for A MAZE. / Berlin festival 2021 in VRChat. A meta-immersive living mycelium musical entanglement. Nanotopia is known for hooking up fungi with electrodes and circuitry to record its various biodata and translating this biodata (often in real-time) through synthesisers both analog and digital. In 2020 Tosca Terán was an invited participant in the New Nature Climate Science Exchange hosted by the Goethe-Institute, curated by Samara Chadwick. Through this exchange with other like-minded artists, technologists and scientists Tosca presented a proposal towards bringing living fungi biodata into a VR environment, creating a macroscopic experience of human and nonhuman entanglements within a forest environment. Working project title: Symbiosis/\Dysbiosis. After the presentations Tosca and digital technologist Sara Lisa Vogl connected and later began work on the Symbiosis/\Dysbiosis project. Bringing in Neuroscientist/coder Brendan Lehman, Photogrammetric/new media

Forest UnderSound is an invitation to consider the sentience of fungi. Sentience is the ability to perceive one’s environment, and experience sensations such as pain and suffering, or pleasure and comfort. Many countries acknowledge animal sentience, and animal’s ability to experience pain, fear, distress, hunger, and thirst, in their laws, which are designed to protect animals from such suffering. In 1997, the European Union agreed to recognize animals as sentient beings under European law. Animals and fungi share a common ancestor and branched away from plants at some point aproximately 1.1 billion years ago. It was only later that animals and fungi separated on the genealogical tree of life, making fungi more closely related to humans than plants. For Forest UnderSound, mycelium from Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi/Lingzhi) and Pleurotus ostreatus (oyster mushrooms), along with mycorrhizal fungi growing and connecting within the roots of various plants has been cultivated. Both the plant roots and mycelium ha

Finally hooked up a Mother. After chatting with Aga (Ferment Radio) I wondered why I hadn't tried this yet. I mean, really. Prior to setting the electrode probes into the SCOBY I did a little test with Apple cider vinegar and another with a bit of water just to see if the activity would be the same or similar- it was not. Available for download, remix, etc.

Back in August 2020 I started cultivating Pleurotus djamor towards a presentation for the Remote Realities residency awarded to myself and technologist/collaborator Sara Lisa Vogl (regarding Symbiosis/Dysbiosis). After the presentation I gently placed the Pink oyster mushrooms aside. Last week, while exiting my music/sound making studio I noticed "Pinkie" and !! there was this beautiful mass of pink oysters emerging out of its grow bag. After apologising profusely I brought Pinkie back into the music studio and started recording. The Electrodes had been left within the mycelium, which is what I usually do. Here are the results of that music session. Hope you enjoy!

Created during COVID self-isolation. Moon in Cancer was recorded during our August 15th live stream. Check it out over on https://nanotopia.bandcamp.com Thanks for listening!

Created during COVID self-isolation. Moon in Cancer was recorded during our August 15th live stream. Check it out over on https://nanotopia.bandcamp.com Thanks for listening!

Created during COVID self-isolation. Moon in Cancer was recorded during our August 15th live stream. Check it out over on https://nanotopia.bandcamp.com Thanks for listening!

Created during COVID self-isolation. Moon in Cancer was recorded during our August 15th live stream. Check it out over on https://nanotopia.bandcamp.com Thanks for listening!

The Dye Maker - Composed by: Phaeolus schweinitzii for Music Works magazine - The biodata of Phaeolus schweinitzii (common name: the Dye Maker’s polypore) was recorded during a Fall foray with the Mycological Society of Toronto at Dufferin forest, Mansfield ON 2019. MIDI translation took place in Toronto at co:Lab/nanopod studio Performed by: Nanotopia (Tosca Terán, Andrei Gravelle) who brought the midi translation of the biodata into Ableton Live and gave Phaeolus schweinitzii a timbral voice. The challenge to collaborating with non-human organisms is to try to minimize the sense of our own involvement in the process. While I mediate the biodata gathered to temper it to determinant pitches and give it a timbral voice, I feel that the sense of rhythm and pattern captured in my field recordings represent a unique aspect of the fungi. While the biodata can sometimes be a starting point for further development, I chose this track, which has had minimal intervention on our part to convey the richness of the

Generative Patching by Mycelium Network

Solstice Live Stream from June 20th, 2020 5:30 PM EDT Into the New Nature Travelling without moving into the Mycelium Network with Nanotopia. Mycelium bio-sonification through modular synthesis. Electrodes are placed within Ganoderma lucidum aka Reishi. The electrodes detect micro fluctuations in conductivity between 1000 t0 100000 of a second. This biodata is then translated to MIDI & CV enabling Humans to hear the Mycelium. Relax into the Mycelium Network... Prior to lift-off we will show our set-up and then fade into reactive TouchDesigner visuals. Thank you for tuning in. Generative TouchDesigner visuals react/respond to the mycelium biodata. Spaceship controls: Flute/Pluck/Bow/Percussive sounds= Mutable instruments Plaits & clones: Atom & Piques Paths, branches, roots = Qu-Bit's amazing Bloom (fractal sequencer) Make Noise= Morphagene, René, Tempi, Pressure Points Along with= Pittsburgh Instruments, Doepfer, Moog(s), Korg (keystep to Mother32), Erica Synths. Visuals both chance & purposeful:

Live stream Midnight Mushroom Music • May 30th, 2020 Ganoderma lucidum biodata recorded in realtime - translated into MIDI & CV into Mutable Instruments Yarns which in turn sent this data into various Synth voices: Plaits, Braids, Clouds, Mother32, Erica synths Black Wave Table and more... contemplative. The Mycelium sounds mutated over time into some ear piercers and pitch shifts, we just allowed it to do its thing. Reactive/generative TouchDesigner visuals were created to go along with the live stream and can be viewed on Instagram (10+min clip) @MothAntler or Youtube: https://youtu.be/HQkNj5YA9yQ Thanks for tuning into the Mycelium Network!

Meant to be a live stream to Instagram (@nanopodstudio) there was a technical melt-down of sorts (phone related) so, we had to cancel. Meanwhile, we were recording (thank the fungi!) and here it is. Pleurotus ostreatus that has grown into/around sawdust w/coffee grounds had electrodes placed on to it about a week or so back.. time being a crazy thing during our self-isolating COVID-19 curve flattening regime! Mycelium has grown over and around the electrodes and has started pinning! We get asked a lot about the mycelium 'generating' music so, I decided to conduct a bit of a walk-thru on one of our set-ups. Mycelium 'playing' our Eurorack. MIDI: our Bio-Sonification modules (we sell them & offer kits) takes MIDI out into (??) a synthesizer, and digital synth app, or other devices that can accept MIDI. The module itself does not make sound, it read micro-fluctuations in conductivity and sends out MIDI notes and/or controls. This data can be used as CV(control voltage) which can then be sent out into our Euror

Ahoy! Some listeners of 28/03/20's live stream asked what the fungi were contributing so, we isolated the layer to share here!