Patricia Wolf is a musician, sound designer, and film composer based in Portland, Oregon. She creates rich, evocative soundscapes that reflect the power of the nature surrounding us while telling important sonic stories. Patricia Wolf’s latest, wonderful album, Yarrow, was released on Music To Watch Seeds Grow By 009.
Welcome to Magazine Sixty, Patricia. Listening to your latest album – Yarrow for Music To Watch Seeds Grow By – felt like a roller coaster for the soul, with its highs and lows and shifts in mood and atmosphere. What is it about creating music through electronic sound that resonates so deeply with you?
Thank you, Greg. I’m happy to hear that Yarrow was a dynamic listen for you. The life cycle of a plant is dramatic and transformative and I wanted that to show in the music.
I feel drawn to creating music with electronic instruments because I can shape sound in any way that I wish and create sound environments that feel more like what’s happening in my head. I also like that I can work alone and easily audition different ideas while I compose.
Tell us how you crafted the soaring landscapes of the opening piece, Abiotic Factors?
I originally composed the piece on my UDO Super 6, but then slowed my original recording down significantly to represent geologic time. This made the piece feel more ancient and powerful, like the movement of tectonic plates over billions of years and how that shapes the land over time.
The accompanying video feels closely connected to the music’s themes. How did the collaboration come about, and how was the visual concept developed?
Edward Pack Davee and I have been working together for several years now. I have long admired his work, but our collaboration started in 2022 when I hired him to make some music videos for my albums “I’ll Look For You In Others” and “See-Through”. Since then I have worked for him as a soundtrack composer, sound designer and sound mixer for his most recent film, Hrafnamynd. As for the music videos that Edward made for me, there was never a concrete plan as to how the videos would look, but I knew that I wanted to focus on the beauty of nature. As a field recordist and bird watcher I wanted to take the practice of spontaneity and deep listening/watching into the making of the videos and Edward was the perfect person to work with on that. The two of us chose natural sites around the Pacific Northwest that we love to explore with his camera equipment. We set out to capture wildlife, beautiful plants, and landscapes and we succeeded.
The new videos took the same approach, but this time the setting was more focused on the ecosystem very near to my home. The material in the Yarrow videos were originally meant for a project called “Sounds of Hope” for the University of Tulsa that reflected on the space around where I live and considered the many other species that I share a habitat with. The video for that project was shown only once in Tulsa, so I thought it would be good to give it another life with the music videos for Yarrow. Since Yarrow is also concerned with ecosystems, I felt that it was fitting. I want to give a special thanks and recognition to Brad Rose (Foxy Digitalis) for inviting me and working with me on the “Sounds of Hope” project. It was such a wonderful experience. He does such great work and it means a lot for him to have thought of me for that project.
How does your relationship with plants and the natural world feed into your music? What was your starting point for your connection with the environment?
I find a lot of inspiration from the natural world and feel a sense of obligation to speak up for it as it is under constant threat these days. If I can help people connect with and appreciate the natural world, then I feel like I am doing something important and meaningful. My starting point with caring for the environment goes back to childhood when playing outside in forests, fields, rivers and ponds was what I did every day. It’s my baseline for everything. I feel more at ease when I am surrounded by the entwined lives of many species. If there are no native plants and animals in my environment, then I sense that something is very wrong with it. It’s important and necessary for people to see themselves as a part of the ecosystem and to work hard to protect and respect each member.
Should music be more political? Do you see environmental art as inherently political, or do you prefer to leave political interpretations to listeners?
Music should reflect what is in one’s heart and mind. If an artist has a political message that they can clearly and effectively express in music, then they should. Music has the special power to bring people together who might not otherwise meet. Those encounters can create connections and understanding between people. I believe that in creating a musical narrative that is sensitive and caring to all life, I am sending the message that we can and should build a world of peace, gentleness, and kind reciprocity with one another and nature.
Do you have a set time for making music: day or night? Do you like to use hardware or software when realising sounds?
It varies, but I think I have a better time with it when it’s the first thing that I do with my day. I prefer to use hardware, but if I create something with software, such as my song “Nocturnal Migration” and it really connects with a feeling inside me then I will wholeheartedly share it with the world. I made that song using Harmonic Bloom, a sound design plug-in that I was hired to make presets for. It’s a very fun and inspiring tool that I have used in a few of my works.
Do you ever feel that genres like ambient or minimalist restrict the way music is described? Are there certain words you would use to describe what you do?
Yes, I do think that genre labels often fall short in accurately describing people’s work, but it can be helpful for quick sorting. Whenever I meet someone in a non-musical context and they ask me about my music I usually tell them that I make ambient electronic music because just saying that I make electronic music usually makes them think that I make EDM or techno. If I have to further clarify, I say that I make music for introspection using electronic instruments and sounds from nature. I don’t think that I quite fit in with the ambient genre in the strict definition of the word, but I don’t mind my music being labelled that way. These days the ambient label points to music that invites the listener to listen deeply and get into their own head. That suits me quite well.
Is the element of chance more important than what is pre-planned in what you do?
Most of my music comes about from playing and experimenting with no firm plan in mind. I like to let my time in the studio be a portal into my subconscious mind. When I get into a flow state with my instruments, it’s exciting to see what ideas, sounds, and note combinations pour out of me and what the overall effect is. I let my intuition guide me.
What areas of your practice are you most excited to explore over the next decade? Are there artistic directions you haven’t yet explored that you’d like to pursue in the future?
I haven’t started this journey yet, but I would like to learn to play piano well and also compose for it. I listen to a lot of piano music by composers such as Maurice Ravel, Mel Bonis, Franz Schubert, Franz Liszt, and Edvard Grieg. I find their work incredibly inspiring and would like to try to make some piano works of my own. My playing and compositions will not be as virtuosic as theirs, but will be full of feeling for sure.
Download/ Stream Patricia Wolf – Yarrow on Bandcamp
Patricia Wolf
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