TULSA, Okla.- , The “Song of the Council Oak”, part of the Plant Music Micro Festival, premiered at the Chimera Ballroom in Tulsa on Feb. 23. Mark Kuykendall, known by his musical moniker as The New Honey Shade, performed his composition. He was joined by Muscogee (Creek) Nation citizen J.D. Colbert, who spoke of the history and cultural importance of the Council Oak tree. Kuykendall defines himself as an experimental electronic composer and multimedia artist who explores the intersections of sound, nature, and visual storytelling. He aims to incorporate biofeedback, field recordings, and analog synthesis in creating immersive experiences that connect audiences with the natural world. Kukendall sat down with Mvskoke Media’s LiveWire about the evolution of the performance and meaning behind the music.
The Plant Music Micro-Festival ran from Feb. 17 to Feb 23. The festival included the Plant Music Wall Exhibition and an Engineering for Girls Workshop, a hands-on learning workshop with plants and technology. “Songs of the Council Oak” was the culmination of the micro-festival.
“Plant music is just a way of monitoring electrical signals of plants as sound through something similar to a heart monitor or an EKG machine,” Kuykendall said. “That is translated into pitch and velocity into binary code language for computers to read.”
The binary code is then inputted into his Buchla synthesizers to create the unique sound.
“Songs of the Council Oak” came from the recordings of bioelectrical outputs from the Council Oak tree.
Kuykendall can’t get the electric signals he needs through bark or branches. “It has to be living matter,” he explained.
“I had people ask me questions about ‘are you able to record the bio feedback from that point in history?’ I said ‘no, it’s a real time response’, so it’s really more about choosing the voice for what you want each section to be voiced as, what kind of voice you want to give the data,” Kuykendall said.
Colbert joined Kuykendall on stage during the 2 hour performance, and shared Muscogee (Creek) history, stories, and background in-between the sound sessions.
“He’ll (Colbert) give some of the history behind each 100 years; we don’t know the specific age of the tree, we know it’s roughly 400 years old. So I broke the musical movements to about 4 in 10 minute movements representing 100 years up until present day so it will culminate ending in 2025,” Kuykendall said.
After the show people were able to ask questions and interact with the technology. By touching the plant, it added their body’s electrical field to the plant, which created more nodes and increased the amount of activity, changing the sound.
In the future Kuykendall would like to do this again one day. He felt that some people are interested and curious about this Plant Music. He hopes that once the tree is more alive that he could possibly do the music on the tree itself in front of everyone.
The project was funded by the Artists Creative Fund (ACF), which provides grants annually to improve funding, visibility and professional development for Tulsa-based artists and creatives.
For more information about the music, upcoming events, film, gallery and contact information visit www.thenewhoneyshade.com.
The full performance of “The Sound of the Council Oak” can be found on Mvskoke Media’s youtube page.
