Seeds Mix 014: A Walk in Pollok Park with Spritz Editions

Symbeline opens the mix with Winter School and returns with Bodying Forth. Susumu Yokota and Princess Diana of Wales get two turns each, Pauline Oliveros lands halfway, and Loris drops in his own track, nine, before Susannah Stark & Band close on Duet. Emma realised while putting it together how much of her library leans towards nature. Still Beach, Open Valley and green is the warmest colour are all in there.

Both played our Bush of Ghosts stage at Watching Trees, this year. We first me Loris with the 12th Isle crew at the first edition. In the studio he leaves a mic running to catch the room, with its cars, chatter and flies, then mutes it on export so listeners can supply their own. This time, that’s Pollok Park.

Emma also cuts hair, and her growing tip comes off the salon floor. Hair is full of keratin and nitrogen, holds moisture in soil, and when laid along seed trenches it keeps deer and slugs away.

There’s no garden at the flat, just a houseplant jungle and a mushroom that came up beside Loris’s desk. He didn’t plant it. He’s claiming it anyway.

Who are you?
Emma and Loris, Emma is a DJ and Loris makes music as ‘Loris S Sarid’. Together we run the tape label, ‘Spritz Editions’.

Why are you here?
We were both fortunate to play sets in the incredible Bush of Ghosts stage at Watching Trees this year. We stayed in touch with the Ransom Note crew since and are happy to contribute a mix to this excellent series.
We picked to design this mix for walking in Pollok Park as it’s the largest green space in Glasgow – we’re lucky to have loads! It’s walking distance to our flat, and the closest place you can go to feel lost amongst trees. A couple of these photos are from me wandering around the woodland trails with my film camera.

When are you happiest?
LORIS: when I have an idea.
EMMA: somewhere peaceful, reading a book with a fennel tea

What did you grow in your garden this year?
EMMA: sadly we don’t have a garden, just live amongst a houseplant jungle
LORIS: A mushroom grew in a plant pot beside my desk. I didn’t grow it intentionally, but for lack of other achievements I will have to claim this one.

What types of plants do you enjoy growing the most, and why?
LORIS: Once I grew a tomato and made an album about it (Music for Tomato Plants). It’s the only plant I ever grew excluding a big Monstera that I was gifted years ago.
EMMA: I love watching Pothos grow and start to explore their surroundings. Also herbs of course, especially mint – it’s such a treat!

If you were a plant what would you be and why?
LORIS: Basil. It reminds me of spaghetti and the balcony I used to play on as a child.
EMMA: I am pretty obsessed with trees as you can probably tell from the photos. I love to think of them rooted to the spot, slowly growing moss, watching the world unfold around them. I think we can learn a lot from trees! I’d like to be a Weeping Willow hanging over a river, they look so relaxed & graceful.

Have you noticed any particular methods or tricks that help your seeds grow better?
EMMA: I have a very niche tip. I’m a hairdresser and am really interested in hair as a natural resource, it has loads of purposes when reused and recycled – including composting!
Hair is an amazing natural fertiliser, it’s rich in keratin (a protein) and nitrogen which keeps many plants happy – and helps retain moisture in the soil.
It is being increasingly used in agriculture, with farmers mixing chopped hair into compost or lining seed trenches with hair mats, which helps to deter deer and slugs too.

How do environmental sounds like water, wind, or birdsong influence your compositions for plants?
LORIS: I normally use some sort of environmental sound while I’m making music, especially if I’m working in headphones. It’s nice to feel like that music exists in a space and not in a digital vacuum. I guess you can also do it by re-amping electronic music. I like the sound of rooms a lot. If I can, I simply leave one microphone on capturing the room I’m in. You get a bit of everything: cars, chatter, flies. I normally tend to mute it when exporting, so people can enjoy listening in their favourite environment.

What role does silence or pauses play in evoking the growth process in your music?
LORIS: Canvas, punctuation.

Do you consider the emotional connection humans have with nature when creating music?
LORIS: Depends what we define by nature. For me nature is everything that exists – trees, grass, cars, stadiums, chairs, ideas, fears, love. In that sense, our symbiosis is so inevitable that not taking into consideration is impossible.
EMMA: When putting this mix together I noticed how much of my music library is ‘nature’ leaning. You’ll see even from the track list many titles mention nature in different ways, I think we can’t help but be influenced by our natural environment.
Our latest tape release ‘Highland Time’ by Symbeline was inspired by a gorgeous place in the Scottish Highlands, Forres. It started life as a soundtrack for a film about Glasgow School of Art’s Rural Highlands campus, nestled in the hills somewhere between Aviemore and the North Sea.

Congrats, you’ve won the plant lottery! You can choose anything you want, what is it?
LORIS: a bush of lavender!
EMMA: a Sycamore Tree & a garden to go with it please!

Spritz Editions Instagram

Highland Times by Symbeline is out soon on Spritz Editions.

Olùsìn [Worshippers] by Ibukun sunday is out now.

Tracklist

1. Symbeline – Winter School
2. Princess Diana of Wales – Still Beach
3. Linden S – A First Gem
4. Kajsa Lindgren – Anna
5. Susumu Yokota – Grass, Tree and Stone
6. Hannan Jones – Re-Tell Atlas
7. CS & Kreme – Corey
8. Melissa Rankin – green is the warmest colour
9. Susumu Yokota – Music From the Lake Surface
10. Pauline Oliveros – A Woman Sees How the World Goes With No Eyes
11. Princess Diana of Wales – Evaporate
12. Midori Hirano – Collapsing Planet (feat. Atsuko Hatano)
13. Dienne – Open Valley
14. Symbeline – Bodying Forth
15. Loris S Sarid – nine
16. H Takahashi – Dust
17. Foam and Sand – Circle 19
18. Susannah Stark & Band – Duet

The Seeds mix is curated by musictowatchseedsgrowby.com