The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra has joined forces with a DJ and music producer to imagine the sound of a crying kauri tree.
The unusual project hopes to shed light on kauri dieback disease, which has killed thousands of the native trees over the past decade.
"It is a tree composing the soundtrack of its own death," music producer Tom Cosm says.
He used special software to generate the pitch, duration, volume and music style, by scanning areas of the tree infected by kauri dieback disease.
"Kauri dieback's a soil microorganism that's an introduced pathogen that infects the kauri through the roots and basically kills the trees," says Auckland Council's Dr Nick Waipara.
It includes trees with Agatha in the Waitakere Ranges - the tree is 1000 years old, but showing symptoms.
Unfortunately it's an all too familiar sight in the area. Up to 25 percent of the trees there are infected and nearly all infected trees die.
"It rots the roots, rots the trunk and then eventually the tree starves to death because it can't feed and water itself," Dr Waipara says.
So the kauri is crying out for your help. There's no cure so prevention is key - scrub your shoes clean before and after a walk through a kauri forest.
And don't get too close to them. People taking selfies are literally hugging the kauri to death.
That's exactly why this musical project was born, to raise awareness and prevent any further kauri deaths.
Newshub.
