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SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
That's the work of the artistic and musical project called Bionic and the Wires.
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JONATHAN PAUL ROSS: We take the electrical signals, and then we convert those into musical notes.
PFEIFFER: Jonathan Paul Ross is one of the creators of Bionic and the Wires. He and his partner, Andy Kidd, capture those sounds from trees and plants and mushrooms.
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ROSS: We are connecting biosensors to fungi and plants, and those sensors pick up on bioelectrical variations that are happening in the plant and the fungi. And that electricity - those changes are because the plant and the fungi are reacting to environmental conditions.
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PFEIFFER: Ross says that creates what we perceive as music.
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PFEIFFER: The team captures these sounds in their studio and in nature. This is a mushroom playing a keyboard under an oak tree in the U.K....
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PFEIFFER: ...And an apple tree jamming out on a guitar and a handpan.
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ROSS: We have these bionic arms that do biosonification. We've taken the biological data, and then we've converted it into motor movement.
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ROSS: We choose the instruments that they're playing because we're aiming for more organic sounds.
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ROSS: We're not reading the thoughts of the plant or the fungi, so we haven't hardwired into the nervous system of the plant or fungi. But we are listening to their bodies, so we've got a direct connection with the physiology and the music that they're playing.
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ROSS: Practically, plants and fungi aren't very good musicians, though that means that you have to be quite creative with the types of instruments that you're using. You maybe need to use a little bit of reverb. You need to have other effects on the sounds that just makes it more rhythmic and something that we understand as music.
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PFEIFFER: Ross produces videos of moss and aloe vera and other plants he uses to make this musical product. Bionic in the Wires also holds live concerts and puts paintbrushes in bionic arms that allow the plants to create paintings, but it's these synthesized sounds that get the most attention.
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PFEIFFER: They might change your perception of what you consider music.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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