Plant a tree. We can watch it grow.

Follow the string of talented people: my pal Chris plays drums in Grizzly Bear. When they were here in Uppsala last year I snagged a copy of their remix album of songs from their debut Horn of Plenty. On that remix album is a track glitched with and added to in all of the right ways by a London fellow named Simon Bookish. Because his remix was so unmistakably good I dug deeper. Yep, everything I've heard from Mr. Bookish to this point has been equally weird, creative and interesting (like before, in all of the right ways). I'd love to see him live one day. So anyways, while browsing around a Simon Bookish place on the internet I linked up to another London fellow whom Simon Bookish is currently touring with. His name is Leafcutter John. While clicking and creeping my way through his website I realize that not only is Leafcutter John making special music, he's also writing his own software that I'm guessing he uses to make, record and perform his music with. And here's where it gets really good (and free); he has made a number of his programs available for download (Mac only). I installed OS 9 just so I could try out some of his early programs. They're simple -looking and make lots of noise. I'm not here to critique them, only to pass the word along. I've had the most fun with Leafcutter John's Forester V1.3 program. Make sound forests using your own audio files, prance through the forest you've created in barefeet, stop for a rest under the old oak (the old oak: maybe a .wav file of 6 children singing a really old song, knives splashing in the sink or maybe even your electric guitar a' reelin' and a' rockin'. You decide.)


Leafcutter John's homepage --> downloads --> software. There it is. Check out the video tutorial, it's informative.