Tree Laboratory

Memories and Music from a Moment in my life

For a handful of years I had a collaborative composing duo, production company, recording studio, and creative partnership with Eric Hoegemeyer, called ‘Tree Laboratory.’ We started out before that as ‘Water Ox vs Fire Rabbit,’ an homage to our individual zodiac signs. Keeping the energy of water ox and fire rabbit, and discovering our signature voice together, we evolved into Tree Laboratory, a name and idea that represented our creative collaboration so perfectly. Eric brought in the futuristic world of electronics and technological ideas, and I was there with my acoustic resonating instruments, representing the elements of nature. As time progressed, these roles became more blurred and cohesive, trading seats with each other, learning from one another, inspired by the same cosmic energy and intention. Today is Eric’s birthday, so I am taking this moment to share with you more about this time of my life, the music and sounds we created, and the mission we shared. 

---

My favorite aspect about composing and working with Eric was our shared language. We spoke about music and ideas in an abstract and other worldly way that always felt natural. We heard each other through strange associations and visualizations that might otherwise seem far reaching or strange. Within the first hours of our meeting in 2011, during a session in a recording studio in Michigan where Eric often worked, we easily found our little path of the world, and following down it without fear, we tapped into a musical and creative forest that we would continue to explore and draw from for the years to come. 

For some of our pieces, Eric would sit at the controls and record me playing an acoustic piano idea, which he would then take into his own hands, adding in layers of sound and transforming it into this melding between acoustic and electronic, nature and future, the signature of our Tree Lab sound. Our logo was a tall blooming tree where the roots were cables reaching into the soil. Our studio had equipment and plants, books and objects, mysterious things living together in simple harmony.

Filming ‘The Good Gray Poet’

---

This song we made, Timelapse Powerplant, is one of my favorite examples of our shared voice. I wrote and played the piano melody, and Eric added the rest. I gave the track this name because that’s how the music felt to me. At the end of the recording, Eric’s electronic addition to the piece always brought this image to my mind of someone walking with bravery and fear away from a devastating scene, something apocalyptic, smoke and fire. Walking away with intensity, this person knows that what is on the way in the near future will be rough, and they will have to be prepared. The details of this all, I don’t know, but this was the feeling and imagery the music brought to me.

This one, New Beetles, is sort of like a call and response conversation that continues to unwind. A little less melancholy. I played the piano melody and Eric added everything else. We worked on the outro together, bouncing ideas back and forth.

---

Eric and I did many music compositions for film maker Steven Sebring. Dozens of recordings for short films, online projects, projections, client based work, etc. One of my favorite projects we did for him was composing music for 14 short films for his exhibition at the 69th Regiment Armory. The films were projected on a 50 foot screen above his installation, and the sound filled the entire space. This was an incredible opportunity. As a composer and musician to hear the notes of your own music in such a unique way. It was truly an honor to have this chance and so much fun to experiment with different sounds and styles. Steven gave us some direction and reference points, but mostly allowed us full creative freedom, so we had a lot of fun and followed musical threads we might not have otherwise tapped into.

One of the projects we did for Steven was Modern Muse Moments in collaboration with Estee Lauder, and actually won a Clio Image Award in the Series category, which was a very proud moment for us all. My favorite of the series is a film about the French dancer, Amandine Albisson. In listening to the music, all recorded on piano, there are two distinct voices that fly back and forth to align with the film narrative. One piano voice is Eric’s and one is mine. This is an example of how our communication flowed when it flowed nicely, effortlessly exchanging words through sound. 

---

We performed often, and sometimes I wish we performed more. We played a set on WNYC for Earth Month, we performed in the summer at a music festival in Norway. We played our instrumental pieces in unique situations - at the Rubin Museum to accompany a recording of our dear friend Roby Springer’s reading one of his writings, onstage at Carnegie Hall for the Tibet House US Annual Benefit, accompanying my mom’s reading for an Andy Warhol exhibit at The Met, at Rockaway Artist Alliance next to the ocean.

---

Of all of our projects that we actually completed, one of my very favorites, possibly the one I am most proud of, is a film we made called ‘The Good Gray Poet,’ a dedication to the life and work of Walt Whitman, primarily focusing on Leaves of Grass. The film was made for an exhibit at the Rockaway Artists Alliance in collaboration with MoMA PS-1. My mom was one of a few chosen artists on this project, and Eric and I were given the opportunity to create a film to project as part of the installation. I enjoyed working on each aspect of this film - the research, choosing the pages of text to include in the voice over, adventures around NYC and New Jersey to gather footage, composing the soundtrack, editing the film together. We did everything ourselves without help from anyone, learning along way. Seeing it projected on the simple white wall of the ‘Walt Whitman Reading Room’ a library/writing space we created with my mom, and later at the Philadelphia Museum of Art for Walt Whitman’s 200th birthday, were two definite creative highlight moments. The film exists now solely on a hard drive on my desk. Maybe someday we can share it more widely, project it again and post it somewhere to live in case anyone is interested.

---

The music for the video below comes from my old band, Belle Ghoul, and Eric and I made the video ourselves, for a holiday promotional card the record label could use. It was so much fun to film, and the idea expanded into a long series following this character that we explored in great detail, though never finished or released. It’s not perfect, and I realized a little too late that I didn’t know how to ice skate anymore (this is an embarrassing tale for another time), but it was a great learning experience nonetheless, and just as the other film, I enjoyed each step of the process.

---

We often enjoyed experimenting with different ideas, drawing from nature and sounds around us, often collected in travels and excursions. In this piece of music, which wasn’t chosen for a project, we wanted to try out making cycles of sound, and our dear friend Tenzin Choegyal provided some vocals. We never used this piece for anything, but I listen to it sometimes on repeat, entering the strange and dreamy landscape created by it.

On my song, Legacies, I recorded the vocals and ukulele by myself at Electric Lady Studios. That same night, I brought the audio to Eric’s home studio, and sitting behind him like the old days, I watched and listened as he added the synths and electronic sounds that you hear. He also mixed the song for me, and sent to a trusted friend to do the mastering. It was Eric’s idea to include the words of Carl Sagan at the front of the song, and he worked with the audio of his voice to blend it into the recording.

---

Throughout my recording experiences, Eric’s hand and ear have often been present, in freelance and contractor projects, personal compositions and recordings, recording with bands I’ve played in, and even mixing and archiving audio from Pathway to Paris live events. In addition to being a talented engineer, producer, and composer in his own right, he is also a fantastic musician and drummer, and playing live shows and songs with him always was a great and easy time. I haven’t played music with him not for many years, maybe 10, but I would guess that not much has changed, unless he’s improved and grown in his musicianship. So I will say then with confidence, that no matter his role, the hat he’s wearing, the instrument he is playing, he listens closely with great care and delivers a special and connected experience for both the collaborator onstage with him, and the listener nearby. 

It would be nice to release our music someday - the compositions we recorded for film projects and for performances. There are so many unfinished pieces, so many pieces I wish we had recorded when we had practiced them endlessly and played them effortlessly. So many unfinished projects, film ideas, writing ideas, creative explorations that drifted away and never saw the light of fruition. No matter what happens, if we revisit them again, or they exist purely as a memory, the work I did with him changed my life, evolved me as a human and as a creative person, and the lessons I learned through our collaboration and connection continue to inform me as life continues. I’m thankful for that. So I wish him a happy birthday, and I listen to our music today in honor of the time and energy stamp that was Tree Laboratory.