Since many years I’m an adept of the Music of the Plants. Thanks to having experienced the music of the plants, my perception of plants and trees has completely changed. It was as if a switch got turned on. My awareness that all plants are intelligent and are constantly aware of my presence, thoughts and feelings was switched OFF before. And then, that day I first sang with a Spider plant and her music…click… it switched ON. This moment has led me to becoming a student and teacher of plant communication, a singer who sings with plants rather than ‘just’ humans, an energy healer collaborating with plants and their music and probably most importantly it has brought me ‘home’ to my kin.. our kin, our plant brothers, sisters and ancestors.

This is why I am driven to come up with ever new ways of passing this gift to others. My last escapade is called ‘The Earth Telephone’: a sound-art installation that facilitates a conversation with nature. It’s designed with icons to invite you to start your call with the Earth by making an offer to nature, with dial buttons that remind you to activate your own senses and a telephone receiver through which you hear the music of a tree (facilitated by the Bamboo), which functions as the antenna for the Earth.

I made this installation for a special event in Paris in the beginning of June 2022, in which an idealistic economist came on foot with a wheelbarrow – filled with earth from the Netherlands – to the head-quarters of the UNESCO in Paris, to propose to put the Earth on the World Heritage List. He came to inspire the world to give the Earth back to the Earth (www.wheelbarrow-walk.com). I decided to create an event in the heart of Paris to ask people to dwell a moment upon their relationship with the Earth. A moment to realise what you would like to say to the Earth and a moment to listen what Earth is saying to you.

The reactions of people were touching, moving, beautiful and just what I had expected. Some people had tears in their eyes just by seeing the installation and its purpose, especially when I explained that we should give something first, before asking something from the Earth. Other people took the receiver apparently without many expectations and were visibly struck, moved, touched.. it was as if I could see people being switched ON. Of course some people I met were already switched ON. Mainly children who picked up the phone and spoke to the Earth as if speaking to a dear friend ‘Allô la Terre, ça va?’ One woman looked surprised and said: ‘If I want to speak with Earth, I can just go there and lie on the grass, I don’t need a phone for that!’ Of course the ‘Earth Telephone’ is a ‘joke’, a symbol, to remind people to play, to be open, to stand still for a moment. Just in case we have forgotten, or perhaps have never consciously started doing so.

For more information on the project Earth Telephone, see www.voiceandplantmusic.com

Zigola Pioppo – singer and researcher

www.voiceandplantmusic.com