There lurks in the depths of the American Museum of Natural History the slice of a giant sequoia tree, taken by loggers in 1891. Its rings are noted with historic turning points from the 1,300 years of history that the tree lived through. An amazing exhibit. Now here comes Bartholomäus Traubeck with Years, a project that turns tree’s rings into music. More from Core77:

Bartholomäus Traubeck’s Years is one of those designs that embodies much more than its one-line description might suggest: simply put, it’s “a record player that plays slices of wood, [in which] year ring data is translated into music.” A tree’s year rings are analysed for their strength, thickness and rate of growth. This data serves as basis for a generative process that outputs piano music. It is mapped to a scale which is again defined by the overall appearance of the wood (ranging from dark to light and from strong texture to light texture). The foundation for the music is certainly found in the defined ruleset of programming and hardware setup, but the data acquired from every tree interprets this ruleset very differently.

Hear more!