Patricia Wolf’s Yarrow, is the ninth edition in our Seeds series. It grew out of weeks spent at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, Colorado, working alongside the ecologists studying plants, pollinators, and a warming climate.
One of those ecologists was Dr Paul CaraDonna - and the album’s closing track, ‘Ecosystem Meditation’ came directly out of that collaboration:
This was an invitation to imagine what it could be like for us to be rooted to one spot, fed only by sun and rain, dependent on other creatures to move at all.
CaraDonna spends his working life asking that same question in the field - at the Chicago Botanic Garden, Northwestern University, and the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, tracking the interactions between plants and pollinators across the Colorado Rockies, Arizona’s Sky Islands, and the gardens of Chicago itself. Alongside the fieldwork, he runs the Total Ecology Research Studio Lab and founded the Art-Science Exchange Project, both built on the same conviction: that science and art asking questions together get further than either does alone.
For Seeds, he’s put together eight tracks that move the way his research does, from the vastness of interconnection down into a single flower, an orchard, a rainbow with birth on one end and death on the other.
Suryummy - “Polynators.”
Like blasting off to outer space…atmospheric and out of this world…but here we are, right here on Planet Earth. When we engage with world around us, we realize we are embedded in a vast network of interaction—human, non-human; plant, animal, microbe; geological, ecological, chemical; everything. So much to observe, explore, take in, be part of.
Coral Morphologic & Nick León - “Hearts Aflutter.”
Where are we now? As the journey continues, as we notice our surroundings, we begin to see what really is right in front of us. Our “hearts aflutter”. The edges of our being slowly dissolve into everything else. If we lay in a meadow, breathing in the air…where do we begin and end? Where does everything else begin and end?
J. Foerster & N. Kramer - “Air Flows.”
So simple, so calm. When I conduct my ecological research with plants, this is what I hope it sounds and feels like. An exchange. A conversation. A relationship.
Patricia Wolf - “Malheur Wildlife Refuge: Late Spring.”
When we pause and observe, it is amazing what we might discover. The more you listen, the more you see.
Loris S. Sarid - “Quasi Red.”
Let it inspire, empower, and motivate.
Botany - “Ory (Joyous Toil).”
Now what? We’re just trying to figure it out. It is at once amazing and overwhelming. Beautiful and terrifying. Terror/Sublime.
Patricia Wolf - “Sessile Existence.”
Imagine that you are a plant. What would that be like? You are stuck in the ground. You are sustained by the sun and the rain from the clouds. And you might rely on other organisms to reproduce and move around. The world is green—so much of the life on earth lives this way. What would that be like? (This song is inspired in part by working together on plant ecology projects in the Rocky Mountains.)
George Clanton & Hatchie - “For You, I Will.”
A Rainbow: on one end there is birth and on the other end there is death. That’s life. It is whatever you want it to be. Beginning/End.
Check out Dr Paul CaraDonna’s work here - amazing website btw Paul ;)
Listen to Yarrow below. Last few cassettes here
