Cartier Coco

Mort Garson’s 1976 album, “Mother Earth’s Plantasia,” was created specifically for plants and brims with bucolic, otherworldly tunes.

A Soul-Nourishing Album for Your Plants

The plant market comprises an ever-expanding array of things—foods, fertilizers, grow lights—that promise to help houseplants reach their full potential. But beyond the nutrient level, plant parents might wonder, how do we nourish their souls?

The question, while mystical, is not baseless. Amid the growing free-mindedness of the early 1970s, occultist and former O.S.S. agent Peter Tompkins, along with dowsing enthusiast and former C.I.A. agent Christopher Bird, wrote and published the book 

, in which they sought to probe the then-uncharted depths of the plant experience through a series of experiments. Though criticized by some botanists for promoting pseudoscientific claims, the discoveries they emerged with were nothing short of groundbreaking. Their findings suggested that plants can hear our prayers, detect lies, use telepathy, and even predict natural disasters. In essence, they concluded that plants are complex, sensory beings.

Perhaps the book’s most revelatory claim was that plants enjoy music. This finding set into motion a slew of albums made specifically for plants, the most prominent of which was Canadian composer and electronic music pioneer Mort Garson’s 1976 album, 

. Subtitled “Warm earth music for plants… and the people that love them,” the record was among the first to experiment with the modular Moog synthesizer and brims with tunes at once bucolic and otherworldly. (Another early Moog pioneer, bioacoustician and musician Bernie Krause, 

recently spoke with us on our At a Distance podcast

 about music and sound in relation to nature.) The album can be enjoyed by plants and plant-lovers alike, and includes species-specific tracks like the entrancing “Music to Soothe the Savage Snake Plant” and the rhythmic, boppy “Ode to an African Violet.” Reissued in 2019 by Brooklyn’s Sacred Bones Records, 

, released this month. (The black ​​LP is available for pre-order now via the company’s website, and will ship on January 31.)

Each of the album’s tracks is acutely informed by botany. “Every pitch is scientifically designed to affect the stomata, or breathing cells, of your plants,” Lynn and Joel Rapp, the former owners of Los Angeles’s Mother Earth Plant Boutique, write in the fully restored original booklet that accompanies the album, “opening them ever so slightly wider and allowing them to breathe ever so slightly freer, and thus, grow ever so slightly better.” Along with water, and sunlight, we suggest adding music—and this pathbreaking album in particular—to your plant-maintenance routine.

The Vitalizing Dimensions of Qigong

Nine Timeless Gifts for the 2023 Holiday Season

The 7 Best Books of the Year

Lara Gilmore on the Media That Brings Out Her Inner Child

A Liberating, Time-Traveling Journey Through Family, History, and Memory

Katy Bowman on Why “Movement Nutrition” Matters

Phaidon’s Emilia Terragni on the Media That Satiates Her Roving Curiosity

With “Open Questions,” Helen Molesworth Opens Up New Ways of Seeing Art

Stefan Sagmeister Finds Optimism in the Long View

How Stoicism Can Cultivate Joy

Spike Lee’s Prolific Career Gets the Spotlight, Naturally, in Brooklyn

Roxane Gay Balances Her Content Intake Between the Real and the Imagined

The Gossamer Glow of Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Roman Stories”

5 Exhibitions You Can’t Miss This Fall

Lindsey Bro on the Cathartic, Humanizing Effect of Bathing Rituals

At New York’s Climate Week, a “Climate Science Fair” Cultivates Optimism and Future-Forward Thinking

David W. Orr on the Inextricable Links Between Climate and Democracy

William Hanley on Media That Adds a Bit of Whimsy to the Everyday

A Dynamic, City-Defining Riverfront Park Grows in Memphis

The Vibrant, Kaleidoscopic Color Theory of Christopher John Rogers

Desiring Beauty, Even If It Kills Us

Eddie Stern on the Physiological and Spiritual Power of Pranayama

vanessa german on Art as a Way of Life and Love as a “Human Technology”

The Go-To Routines and Rituals of Daphne Javitch

Beverly Nguyen’s Highly Tactile Taste in Media

In “Look,” Christian Madsbjerg Celebrates the Slow, Patient Act of Observation

Sara Auster on Fine-Tuning Your Life Through Sound Therapy

A Herzog & de Meuron Exhibition Emphasizes Architecture as Collective, Not Egocentric

Priya Khanchandani on the Media That Inspires Her Curatorial Work

Vivian Rosenthal on the Profound Power of Holotropic Breathwork

Pedro Gadanho on How Architecture Must Adapt to Our Ecological Emergency

In “Ordinary Notes,” Christina Sharpe Weaves a Profound Portrait of Black Life

The Alchemy of David Adjaye’s Architecture

Millana Snow’s New Well-Being Plan

5 Exhibitions You Must See This Summer

Jaé Joseph on Broadening Notions of Luxury and Well-Being

The Poetic, Humanistic Architecture of Lina Ghotmeh

Chris Impey on the New Space Race and Exoplanet Habitation

Norman Teague on How He Keeps His Finger on the Pulse

With His Monumental Bronze Sculptures, Thomas J Price Honors the Everyday Features of Black Life