Warm Earth Music for Plants…
and the People Who Love Them.
“Warm earthy music for plants… and for those who love them.” This is how an album was announced in 1976, which would end up becoming a work of musical botany. Created by Mort Garson, a strange lover of the Moog synthesizer and the occult unfoldings typical of that tribe, Mother Earth’s Plantasia is a rare gem of seventies electronica.
The relationship between music and plants is close; After all, they are the two most pleasant companions that a human being has at his disposal – perhaps along with books and dogs. And in this shared history, made up of countless episodes and encounters, Plantasia has a special place.
Inspired by an exotic best seller of that time, The Secret Life of Plants (1973), which postulated, among other things, the telepathic properties of plants, Garson decided to compose an album explicitly for them: a series of sound caresses that stimulated their prosperity and satisfaction. The result, as you can imagine, is an experiment of high sensoriality, multicolored and, in essence, exuberant.
What music do plants enjoy?
Garson’s answer would be: a herbal potion with sounds between psychedelic ambient, vintage astrality and a transcendental exploration through synthesizers. But there are other answers too; for example, those proposed by Dorothy Retallack in her book The sound of music and plants. In any case, the best thing would be to ask the plants.
But, in addition to probably delighting plants, Plantasia stands out for its ability to evoke, at least among its secondary audience, humans, vibrant emotions and landscapes. Imagine, for example, flirting inside an abandoned elevator, taken over by a large family of ferns whose leaves cover a sensual period print on the walls, while “Baby’s Tears Blues” plays in the background.
Although Plantasia has already forged its place in musical memory, now its echo is refreshed with the recent relaunch of vinyl by the Sacred Bones Records label – a gesture that we applaud, since releasing this album today entails a dose of medicinal counterculture.
Herman Hesse said, in the case of the , that: “Whoever knows how to talk to them, who knows how to listen to them, learns the truth.” If this also applies to plants, then Garson, by facilitating a conversation with them, would be lubricating the metaphysical evolution of our species. And even if not, the least Plantasia deserves is for you to water your plants today and then move on with your life.