Since the late 1970’s, in Italy, in the world-renowned cultural community known as Damanhur, a device was developed that can translate the electromagnetic impulse of the plants into melodies.

Damanhur was established in the Alpine foothills of northern Italy in 1978 and is populated in part by scientists, doctors, researchers and artists who dedicate their lives to understanding the function of Nature as a living, intelligent force.

For many years, Oberto Airaudi (Falco Tarassaco), founder of Damanhur, and his fellow researchers, analyzed bioelectric processes that are conducted by plants, trees and flowers. They discovered that the conductivity is a core indicator of the life force of plants generating key pathways for water, minerals, and other nutrients within trees and flowers.

They utilized different bio-feedbacks and devices to demonstrate the plant’s ability to interact with humans. Our most famous experiments are “the plant driving a small cart” and “the plant opening a door”.

After many years the researchers decided to focus on plant music. It was felt that music was the most direct and universal channel for making nature’s message understood by all.

Since ’76 our extensive research demonstrates how living organisms respond intelligently to their environment, and is confirmed by an earlier U.S. based study detailed in the book “The Secret Life of Plants”.

Plants respond in very sophisticated ways to both physical and intellectual stimuli.
We discovered that the shift of electrical behavior of plants could be captured using probes, electrodes, and a device. Many experiments were performed with the help of self-produced bio-feedbacks and electronic devices.

In the plant driving experiment, a plant was put on a small cart and connected to a special device. It was able to move in 4 directions through electrical impulses. After a certain period of training the plant was able to understand how it worked and chose to move towards the greenest area regardless of its initial position. If it needed water, the plant moved towards an area where a source of water was available.
Another experiment is that of the door opening. The plant recognized its “owner”, that was the person who took care of it, and when he approached his home, the plant, through a special sensor, triggered a mechanism to open the lock.

After these first experiments we chose to focus on plant music. With a particular algorithm studied by us, electrical signals can be translated into sound. The pulse streams of each organism are unique, with each plant manifesting its own individual biological ‘signature sound.’

Moreover, plants demonstrate that they can learn to interact with humans. At first, the plants ‘simply’ realize that the sounds emitted by the device are a consequence of their electric activity then they learn to modulate it to change the sounds.

More expert plants, eventually, modulate the sounds to interact with humans and create a real form of communication. When they interact with musicians for example, they sometimes even repeat the same scales, the same tunes and the same notes.

Moreover, skilled plants can ‘train’ other plants, helping them to learn quickly.

For further curiosities see FAQ

The device attaches to the plant via two electrodes, one placed on a leaf and the other inserted into the soil close to the roots of the plant.

We studied a specific software which converts plant behavior into sound, allowing a better communication that can be understood by human beings.

The device allows a plant to play music based upon its health, environment and general demeanor.  This is achieved by monitoring the Plants instantaneous resistance. Depending upon the level of resistance, different notes and melodies are played.

On certain occasions, the plant’s resistance creates a spike, indicating an excited state.  This can occur due to external influences such as touch, watering, moving, etc.  Sometimes the plant can spike its resistance independently maybe due to our human presence, our thoughts or our feelings. 
Whenever a spike occurs, it causes a change in notes, which may be more to the plants liking.

The user can select from the device different musical instruments, root notes, scales and other parameters. However the plant is always the original musician composing the melody.