‘Sunflower’ Album

Music To Watch Seeds Grow By

I was commissioned to make an album inspired by a seed by the label Music To Watch Seeds Grow By in 2025. LISTEN HERE. Here is the info:

Opening its second growing season with a new work from Scottish producer Brian d’Souza (also known as Auntie Flo) and his ‘Plants Can Dance’ project, the new Seeds release is an ambient composition that draws on botanical research into how sunflowers interact, cooperate, and compete beneath the soil. Following a first season featuring sold-out releases from Woo, Davis Galvin, Graintable, E Ruscha V, Stella Z, and Lapalace, Season Two continues the label’s focus on intertwining music with the process of growth and cultivation.

‘Plants Can Dance’ considers the underground world of sunflowers, where root systems engage in complex social behaviours. Recent studies have shown that sunflowers exhibit spatial awareness and a form of etiquette: avoiding competition when resources are plentiful, sharing nutrient patches when necessary, and positioning themselves strategically when they have better access to resources. This balance between cooperation and competition underpins d’Souza’s composition.

d’Souza’s work translates these interactions into sound, creating a landscape that reflects the quieter aspects of plant communication. Through minimalist production and field recordings, d’Souza captures both the patience of root foraging and the underground negotiations for resources.

“I chose sunflowers because they embody cooperation over competition - when they encounter nutrient-rich soil between two plants, they deliberately root elsewhere to avoid conflict, demonstrating that co-existence can be a stronger evolutionary drive than dominance, challenging our traditional understanding of survival of the fittest.

This album was made by capturing biodata from my son’s sunflower growing in our London garden and converting this data into sound using my modular synthesiser. I used the data as a means of artistically representing the different stages of a sunflower’s growth."