Music for plants: the Indonesian band using sounds and frequencies to relax them, and inviting audience members to bring their own
- Indonesian electronic music duo Bottlesmoker held their first plant-centric concert in July, playing to an audience who brought more than 150 house plants
- They even capture ‘sounds’ from the plants which they turn into different melodies and patterns
Indonesian musical duo Bottlesmoker have always been peculiar. Performing instrumental electronic music that brims with gleeful melody and danceable beats, they use vintage toys and game consoles, transistor radios and home-made sound machines alongside modern synthesisers to make their music.
These days, they’ve added something new to the mix: plants. Inspired by the experimental works of late Canadian electronic-music pioneer Mort Garson, particularly his 1976 album Mother Earth’s Plantasia, they have been playing conceptual concerts centred on plants – a novel idea that has won the duo a lot of attention.
“When we did our research for the shows, we found out there were many different types of music that work when playing with and for plants,” says band member Anggung “Angkuy” Suherman, 35. “We settled on the kind that would be best accepted by the plants.”
He founded Bottlesmoker – whose name is inspired by a bottle the duo made into an ashtray – in 2006 with Ryan “Nobie” Adzani, also 35, when they were both students at the communication faculty at Padjadjaran University in Bandung, West Java.
Their first plant-centric concert was held in July in Bandung and featured music with a mix of new age ambience and whimsical electronica. The duo directly referenced Mort Garson’s influence by dubbing the concert Plantasia.
Bottlesmoker played to an audience of more than 150 house plants, which were brought to the venue by their owners, most of whom were fans. The band mixed everything they had learned about playing music for plants with “local wisdom”, Angkuy says.
