A review of The Music of Trees album and live performance by Geoff Robb at The Actors Theatre as part of the 2024 Brighton Fringe Festival.
Introduction
“… an evening of magical storytelling and virtuoso guitar that promises to transport you out into the woods. If you love nature and enjoy beautiful acoustic guitar music then this is the show for you! Inspired by the wonder of the natural world, ‘The Music of Trees’ weaves together storytelling, woodland folklore and mythology with a suite of original compositions featuring Geoff’s signature blend of classical, jazz, Celtic and Spanish influences.” (Brighton Fringe Festival website)
I stumbled across this concert surfing the comprehensive Brighton Fringe Festival programme of events. Woodland folklore, mythology, musical tree worship, all the ingredients were there for this listener. I initially share my deep-rooted connection with nature by way of context, followed by reflections about the album and the live concert.
We all eventually return to nature
Apparently, as a six-year-old when asked what I wanted to do when I grew up, I simply replied to adults asking this question: “I want to look at nature.” Thankfully today I have achieved the goal of my six-year-old self, frequently engaging with the natural world through rambling and gardening. As woodlanddecay.com evolves, I sometimes share my reflections, though more often than not I am out in nature.
Black and white television made a huge impression on my six-year-old self. Three programmes on repeat in the summer holidays nurtured my evolving self. The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe was not quite as cheery as it sounds and fed my existentialist tendencies. The Pogles and their woodland adventures were real to my six-year-old self (see this post for further discussion).
The third and final programme was the black-and-white Tales of the Riverbank produced in the early sixties. These short tales began and ended with some highly evocative classical guitar music. Real-life animals such as guinea pigs and hamsters acted out stories in nature with Johnny Morris cleverly imagining their dialogues. As the title suggests these tales were riverbank-themed, but rooted in the natural world.
As a child, it appeared as if the natural world was all there was and perhaps such a naïve insight today isn’t so naïve. The Music of Trees serenades me back to innocent early years and that visceral childhood connection with the natural world. Certainly, an album imagining and celebrating the life of trees is a worthwhile endeavour, an endeavour which I am now going to explore further.
The Music of Trees – The Album
The title The Music of Trees immediately caught my imagination in the Brighton Fringe Festival programme. I was unfamiliar with the work of Geoff Robb but decided to engage with what appeared to be a beautiful project. After buying a ticket to see the live performance, I decided it would be good to have listened to the album a few times in advance of the concert. Pre-listening wasn’t a pre-requisite, but I have the luxury of time and for myself, it would enhance my concert experience.
On first listening to the album, I tried to play Spot the Tree. I had hoped that without looking at the track titles, I would be able to guess that it was the ash, the willow etc, but this proved futile. What I did learn was that I had listened to a very relaxing and beautifully performed collection of instrumental guitar music.
The album fittingly opens with birdsong and there is a parallel with how the whole album sounds. Varied melodies and moments, yet unified in being located in a natural setting. The byline for the album is “nature-inspired guitar music” which neatly captures the listener experience. These are the riffs and rhythms a yew tree evokes for Geoff Robb. Similar to listening to a bird song in a wood, our interpretations might differ from what the birds had in mind, but we are unified in sharing the joy of the musical woodland experience.
As a non-musician, I am unable to evaluate the skills of the guitar playing, but as a listener it sounds very good and my old ears have listened to a lot of music over the years. We perceive trees in different ways related to personal preferences and histories, as well as, our ever-changing moods and emotions. Similarly, album tracks speak to us in different ways evoking varied feelings and emotions.
There is a cohesive unity to the ten album tracks which works well. However, I want to convey what these ten tracks separately invoked for myself. In initially listening, what came through was a strong notion of motion and flow. We are in the realms of processes and verbs.
- The Willow – This track invokes a small babbling woodland brook, following its path through ancient woodlands.
- The Linden – This track invokes a joyful child skipping through woodland without a care in the world.
- The Elm – This track invokes an older person indulging in some laid-back reflection beneath an old tree, with a hint of melancholy in those reflections.
- The Hornbeam – This track invokes a ramble with purpose through a large wood on a sunny day, with all the variations in pace and direction a ramble entails.
- The Ash – This track invokes wild swimming in a quiet woodland lake. It starts tentatively entering the water but then builds momentum as the swimmer is seduced by the liberating feel of the water.
- The Yew – This track invokes a feeling of being deep within a dark wood reading revelations in a long-lost magical grimoire.
- The Silver Birch – This track invokes leisurely, even lazy rowing along a small river passing through a forest.
- The Scots Pine – This track invokes carefully and respectfully climbing a small summit in a large forest.
- The Cherry – This track is about walking hand in hand with somebody lovely, with little surges of joy every so often.
- The Holm Oak – This track metaphorically invokes a long and affectionate goodbye, fitting as it is the final track.
This active and purposeful listening enhanced my enjoyment. There was also an unanticipated benefit when I discovered the album sleeve notes tucked inside the CD cover. I was now able to compare and contrast Geoff Robb’s inspirations, as shared on the album sleeve notes. There didn’t have to be overlaps, but there were overlaps in how the trees through music independently spoke to us.
Yes, the willow often thrives close to water, and he intended to capture this gentle flow and the track certainly achieved this. The elm track was a lament for the loss of elm through Dutch elm disease and his guitar conveyed the sadness of loss. I have always had a bit of yew crush, intrigued by these trees being located at pagan places of worship, subsequently adopted for Christian churches. The magical qualities of the yew surface throughout the track. I learned from the sleeve notes that the leaves of the holm oak in ancient Greece were used to tell the future. I hope my hearing a long and affectionate goodbye isn’t prophetic. Then again, my core belief that we all eventually return to nature has always been both metaphorical and literal.
Intermission
One of my joys is watching the leaves of the Linden tree unfurl symbolising moving out of the cold winter months and into the warm summer months. The Linden also more commonly known as the Lime has another name, the love tree. If you look at the third image you see the heart shaped leaves. They are very delicate and thin at this temporary stage and with the winds and sun they inevitably change.
The Music of Trees – The Concert
After listening to the album and getting to know the tracks on The Music of Trees, I was curious to hear them performed live with an audience. I had been to a couple of events at the Actor’s Theatre when it was called The Marlborough Pub and Theatre, although troublingly I have no memory of who I saw/heard.
There was a logistical challenge today as the theatre was being used for multiple events with minimal time between performances. As it transpired, I was in front of the queue and first originally to purchase a ticket. I must be careful, or I will get a reputation as a tree fetishist.
On entry, there was a black backdrop with a simple raised stage and two guitars on the stage. It has always been a joy to watch musicians perform in intimate venues, you feel a bit more part of the performance. The pre-concert music was bird song, very calming and orientating. Outside Brighton on a festival evening was buzzing and inside we all needed to channel our sylvan state of mind.
This was particularly the case for Geoff Robb, after what must have been a manic set-up experience. He started with a short tale of the acorn as a metaphor for being grounded and connected with nature. This proved to be an effective portal out of busy Brighton and into the world of trees. The set started with The Linden, one of my favourite tracks. This was followed by The Willow. Intriguingly, for this track he drummed on his guitar, recorded this as a loop and then played it back as the percussion. I was reminded that there is always an added dimension to watching music performed live.
We learnt about going into the woods for inspiration and the emotions that are stirred up in the woods at night time. Also, he talked about the problematic nature of expectations. I had expected The Music of Trees concert to mirror the album. This wasn’t the case and this wasn’t problematic. There were different samples and different tracks, one seemed to be called the quest, intriguing in itself. I hear a new track The Banyan Tree for the first time with its dreamy flute accompaniment. Tonight suggests that work on Volume Two is going well.
I had hoped to hear a favourite track played live. It wasn’t the sort of concert, you shouted out requests and we were asked to keep applause until the end. However, as if by magic my favourite track The Cherry provided a fitting finale. Geoff Robb also provided a little more inspirational context beyond his sleeve notes. He suggested that his inspiration had been the sweetness of the cherry and the fragrance of the blossom. This morning as I type that sweet fragrance still lingers.
Final Reflections
There are occasions when I ramble through forests/woodland without either a map or a fixed destination in mind. It becomes more organic/emergent, rather than mechanistic/purposeful. In a similar spirit, The Music of Trees by Geoff Robb encourages indulging in an idle moment to interpret nature through music.
More purposefully, the sleeve notes suggest that the English Oak is already making overtures to be on Volume Two. I’d make a pitch for the Copper Beech which I planted on the day of my Dad’s funeral. Also, the hazels which thrive in my garden on the dry/chalky Sussex soil have magic about them.
The Music of Trees sleeve notes refer to the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic as the backdrop for some of the compositions. In terms of Volume Two, I’d make a pitch for the music of tree collectives as well as individual (isolated) trees. Tree collectives such as coppices, small woods, large pine forests and the rain forest which I recently walked through on the edge of Dartmoor.
I was fortunate enough to attend shamanic conscious courses facilitated locally by Susan Greenwood and Brian Bates. Subsequently, I read their books and was particularly captivated by a section in The Nature of Magic in which Susan Greenwood explains why we feel so secure amongst trees. Paraphrasing, we lived for millions of years in the green womb of rainforests, only very recently have humans largely left the forests. Forests and trees offer us a reconnection with our biological origins and an antidote to the human history of alienation.
I am still in agreement with the mission of my six-year-old self, but today I would add I want to look at and listen to nature.
Links
Informative website with details of forthcoming concerts, gallery, news and shop.
This site gives you a flavour of what the original black-and-white Tales of the Riverbank were all about. I was interested to learn that these early programmes for children received many awards.
Reference
Greenwood, S. (2005) The Nature of Magic: An Anthropology of Consciousness. Berg, Oxford..
The Music of Trees Live 16 05 2024
Woodlanddecay 