The Weathersongs Project

Weathersongs Image Strip

Weathersongs is a project to create music from the ever-changing patterns of the weather as recorded by an electronic weather station. The project has a number of elements starting from an installation which composes music in real-time through to musical interpretations of both real-time data and information collected over days or even months.

These project elements are as follows:

Real Time: Installation

The first phase of the Weathersongs Project was the construction of an installation which composes continually evolving music in response to surrounding weather conditions. The first version of the installation was built and located in North Wales. For more information and to hear examples of the music it makes go to the Weathersongs Installation page.

Real Time: Interpretations

The second phase was to take the real-time output of the installation and edit it to form shorter, more structured pieces, that reflect the weather at a particular place and time. While pieces may be shortened; timbres altered; and notes changed, moved, inserted or deleted for aesthetic effect, the overall result will, hopefully, remain true to impressions produced by the raw output and by the prevailing weather.

The first collection of these pieces, entitled Weathersongs Volume 1: Days in Wales (Sunday Dance Music SDRIC02) was released on CD in March 2006. For more information, to hear tracks, or buy a copy of the CD online, go to the Weathersongs CD page.

Non-real Time: Days in the Life

Another planned stage of the project was to utilise the data logger attached to the Weather Station to record changes in the weather over set time periods (say, single days), sonify the information, and play back the resulting music in a shorter time (probably one day = six minutes). This element of the project has been suspended for now as my time hasa been taken up by noodlebots and other things.