Plants Can Dance
“Plants are the very definition of creative becoming: they are in constant motion, albeit slow motion, probing the air and the soil in a relentless quest for a liveable future.”
— Zoe Schlanger, The Light Eaters
So, plants are dancing—just very slowly.
Plants Can Dance (and Mushrooms Sing) is Brian d'Souza's musical collaboration with nature. Living organisms, like plants and fungi, produce unique electronic signals and data that, when connected to synthesizers and other equipment, can be converted into sound and music: a process called biosonification.
RELEASES
PLANTS CAN DANCE COMPILATION
SUNFLOWERS ALBUM
MYCORRHIZAL FUNGI
PRESS, PHOTOS AND EVENTS
Brian d’Souza - Artist CV
Brian d’Souza is an award-winning sound artist, DJ, music producer and live performer that is ‘taking World Music into the future’ (The Guardian) and who DJs under the alias Auntie Flo (an homage to his late Goan Auntie Florie). His compositions fuse field recording from around the globe with electro-acoustic production techniques to create ‘acoustic ecologies’ that are centred on exploring the psychological and physical benefits of sound.
He currently runs Plants Can Dance (and Mushrooms Sing) event series, which is home his work around the creation of bioelectrical music from living things: plants, fungi and humans. He uses biodata to trigger notes on his specially built modular synthesizer in a process called bionsonification, with the intention of bridging the gap between the natural world and electronic music realm.
This work has been commissioned by the likes of Art Angel, National Trust, Het Hem, V&A etc and featured in New Scientist, BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio 4, Tate Modern, Rolling Stone, BBC Radio 1 and more.
He is founder of A State Of Flo label and blog, focusing on exploring the biological basis for music, new ecosystems and the creation of acoustic ecologies. A State of Flo released the fourth Auntie Flo studio album ‘In My Dreams (I’m a Bird and I’m Free) in November 2024. It was awarded Global Album of the Month in the Guardian and Album of the Year by Disco Pogo and DJ History. The first single, Green City, received praise from across the industry, with taste-making DJ Luke Una calling it “A spine tingling spiritual balearic bomb - very special, magical, beautiful - it’s just outrageously good”.
‘In My Dreams’ is the follow up to the 2019 SAY Award (Scottish Album of The Year) winning ‘Radio Highlife’ album (Brownswood 2018). The sold out Radio Highlife UK tour culminated in a main stage Saturday night headline set at the inaugural We Out Here Festival with the Auntie Flo live band. That year he was awarded ‘Scottish Electronic Musician of the Year’ sponsored by the Sub Club and Nordoff Robbins.
His influential Highlife party celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2020, and is widely recognised as introducing a more diverse musical palette to UK dancefloors and beyond. Inverted Audio stated it was ‘one of the most culturally exciting developments to happen to club culture in the UK...a prosperously based groundwork of music which will pave the way to come for artists in future years.’
In 2020 he established Ambient Flo, a 24-hour radio station broadcasting ambient music as a means of combating stress caused due to the pandemic. Ambient Flo collaborated with the likes of KMRU, James Holden, Cold Cut, Gigi Masin, and many more. It received praise from the likes of The Guardian, Rolling Stone and Resident Advisor for its novel ‘Artist Profit Share’ model, with Loud & Quiet proclaiming it represented ‘a new kind of radio station’.
In 2022 he collaborated with award-winning tabla player Sarathy Korwar to release ‘Shruti Dances’. It was awarded Guardian’s Global Album of the Month and led to a tour of India and Nepal in 2023.