TREELINE took its first small steps in Epping Forest last week and what a super day we had! I was lucky enough to join Epping Forest Conservation Volunteers, Epping Forest Young Photographers and members of Epping Forest Youth District Council on a beautifully sunny day diving into the depths of the woods where we explored the wonderful beech trees there and selected one particular beauty to get to know a little better.
Our chosen tree is an ancient Beech tree situated towards the southerly part of the forest, magnificently still reaching for the sky after hundreds of years. This tree has been through two world wars, the inventions of penicillin and the lightbulb, the discovery of radium and continued growing through the endeavours of Emily Pankhurst, Florence Nightingale, Oscar Wilde and JFK. Trees do not recognise modern borders or tickable boxes. They remain unaffected by our world of political machinations, smart phones and information overload. And our tree, because of its glorious double trunk, elegantly sidesteps easy measuring and recording. Nonetheless, with the greatest of respect to it, we took a profile, including girth and canopy measurements and root spread, we took ambient recordings and we also listened to the sounds from inside this wonderful, evolving and, dare I say it, ‘breathing’ example of longevity. Because of course it is still breathing. Taking in carbon dioxide, photosynthesising, sucking up water, interacting with flora and fauna, spreading its root system into mycorrhizal networks and exhaling oxygen.
My job, as a composer, is to use this tree’s information (and other selected trees’ profiles) in the new piece of music which will be toured from Romania back to the UK next summer. I will knit together the sounds that we collect, create a new instrument made from tree sounds and work with other musicians to create site-specific events across 2500 miles culminating in a London performance in July 2026. And at that concert this very beech tree will be the centre point and focus of the music.
We had such a wonderful day last week, and that was due in great part to Yve Woodhouse and Tom Boughton from Epping Forest Charity whose warm welcome, assured guidance and valuable insights to the forest helped create the perfect start for the project.
The following images are from Kaya Ouchaner, Leah Bloom, Tanjit Panesar, Wren Allan and Yve Woodhouse.
