“Years” is a modified record player that analyzes the growth rings on a cross section of a tree and translates the information into ghostly piano music (video). The device was created by German artist Bartholomäus Traubeck.

A tree’s year rings are analysed for their strength, thickness and rate of growth. This data serves as basis for a generative process that outputs piano music based on the year ring data. Those are analyzed for their thickness and growth rate and are then mapped to a scale which is again defined by the overall appeareance of the wood (ranging from dark to light and from strong texture to light texture). The foundation for the music is certainly found in the defined ruleset of programming and hardware setup, but the data acquired from every tree interprets this ruleset very differently.

I think all parents would like to buy this in bulk!