I’m thinking a lot about Mushroom Church these days. This community art project grew out of a chance event at a church in Vancouver in 2023 and saw my practice of making music with mushrooms and plants meet the wonderful acoustics and aesthetics of a church meet artists, scientists and poets. Together this formed a touching and inspiring tribute to the fungal kingdom - and Mother Nature as a whole.
We’ve since hosted Mushroom Churches all over North America and are now going to Europe for the first time!
The video above captures a magical moment from one of our first events in Vancouver. My good friend Willoughby and his daughter Uma joined me to connect their bodies to the fruiting oyster, lion’s mane and chestnut mushroom cultures. As the bioelecticity fluctuates in this human-fungal circuit, notes go up and down on a synthesizer. This simple mechanism is also profound. It reminds me that we are all alive, together, and connected.
I have often thought about how mycelial the synthesizer is, with its tangle of cables transporting electrical current through various circuits as hyphae do in the earth. Like mycelium, these circuits are alive - alive with randomness, with inputs from the biology of the circuit - and also like mycelium - constantly responding to changing conditions. As we insert ourselves into these circuits, we become a part of something greater - a cybernetic compound life form that is unpredictable and also, in its own way, alive.
For paid subscribers and research associates I’ve included some extra footage that captures a wild improvisation with this same circuit that includes an old TR-606 drum machine, an SH01a synth, an Op-1 synth, my modular rig, and a host of pedals. It’s nutty! Please enjoy 🍄
So, yes, Europe. We’re about 90% sold, so if a live Mushroom Church experience is something that excites you, please book soon. We’re starting on April 29th in a tiny church in a tiny village north of Barcelona - then off to Bornem (Belgium), Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm - and Lisbon is being announced soon.
And finally… there’s also a Mushroom Church album coming out on Earth Day, April 22 🌍 I mixed this album in spatial audio, a format which allows for a fully immersive listening experience. Although some headphones can handle this format, the absolute best way to listen is in a specially constructed room. Fortunately in Vancouver we have Lobe Studio, one of the world’s only 4D sound rooms. There are even speakers in the floor! The techs at Lobe are helping me convert the audio files so we can listen to the whole record as it was meant to be heard - with the sound all around us. There are only 25 spots for each session. Tickets are $20, just enough to help me cover the rental of the space. And I’ll be bringing a BIG armful of my recycled screen-printed tees with small defects in them as a free gift for those who come early. Cushions and mats are included.
And for the paid subscribers, some discount codes and other goodies are below!
