Jack Gionis and Andrew Zhou
White Ash – Fraxinus americana
At several points in writing the music for the White Ash tree, we found the sounds we were recording and placing together pointed us towards some kind of ancient, mythological experience. Combinations of wooden, ceramic and metallic sounds began to evoke various elemental forms of earth, water, air and fire. Familiar sounds acquired abstract, narrative implications that led us to explore how we could transform the sense of dimension and space around a listener.
It was serendipitous, then, to discover afterwards the connection the ash tree has with folklore.
In Norse mythology, there is a mighty tree known as Yggdrasill that connected the ‘Nine Worlds’, home to all beings – living and dead. This all-encompassing tree reached high up to the heavens, across the cosmos and, with its roots, down into the underworld. Its wellbeing reflected the health of its inhabitants and the balance of the universe. It is speculated that Yggdrasill was an ash tree. Importantly, the tree was a mortal entity. So, to protect the tree was to protect life itself.