Brian d’Souza Explores the Secret Social Lives of Sunflowers for Music To Watch Seeds Grow By

The release explores recent botanical research revealing how sunflowers navigate cooperation and competition through their root systems. When encountering nutrient-rich soil between neighbouring plants, sunflowers deliberately root elsewhere to avoid conflict, demonstrating that coexistence can be a stronger evolutionary drive than dominance.

For the composition, d’Souza captured biodata from his son’s sunflower growing in their London garden, converting it into sound using his modular synthesiser. The data artistically represents different stages of a sunflower’s growth, from first emergence to the underground negotiations between neighbouring plants.

Through minimalist production and field recordings, the piece captures both the patience of root foraging and those subterranean conversations for resources. It’s ambient music reflecting the quieter aspects of plant communication – the things that happen when we’re not watching.