Brookfield Meadow - Launch Event
“I want to make work that connects people to the world around them ... encourages people to experience places like this more deeply”
Listen to the River Ching was launched at Brookfield Meadow on Wednesday 6 May and we were delighted by how many people popped by during the afternoon and the lovely response to the music. People of all ages took the opportunity to slow down, pause for a moment to listen and wander by the river. This project is hyper local for me and there really is a lot of love for this district in NE London.
Some visitor feedback
‘Lovely to see this previously neglected corner come to life. The music and words are beautiful and moving. Thank you for a wonderful project’
‘Beautiful moving music … the most incredible way to connect with nature’
‘What a lovely thing to have on our doorstep. Thank you – the music is lovely’
‘Music was magical and so lovely to sit on a toadstool and listen under the trees by the river’
‘Made me experience the place in a different way’
New Release
New single - out 6 May
“Ellie Wilson’s Listen to the River Ching gives voice to this magickal watercourse, featuring field recordings, composition and readings the Ching speaks to us through Ellie’s enchanting creation. Such a beautiful tribute to this essential capillary of London”
Listen to the River Ching is a project taking place at Brookfield Path in Highams Park E4, funded by a ‘Make It Happen’ grant from London Borough of Waltham Forest.
This new music composition grew from a series of workshops led by composer Ellie Wilson for pupils with vision impairment at Joseph Clarke School. They visited the River Ching to explore the landscape through sound and collaborative listening. Together, they captured a sonic portrait of the environment using hydrophones and microphones.
The resulting composition combines percussion and whispered voices (water spirits) captured in the classroom with field recordings of the riverbank and its underwater world. This is combined with violin, synthesiser, piano, percussion and sound design for an immersive experience, evoking the flow of the river as it meanders through Epping Forest and slips quietly past back gardens, playing fields and allotments.
A reading from Henry Hawkins’ 1895 book Epping Forest – London’s Great Legacy (from a copy that belonged to Ellie’s great-grandfather) is incorporated into the piece, connecting past and present through place, memory and listening.
Ellie Wilson composer, violin, hardanger fiddle, voice, sound design
Pupils from Joseph Clarke School whispered voices, shakers
Thom Ashworth mix, master, sound design
Ryan Pearce cover image and video
A lesson in listening
Pupils with vision impairment worked with Ellie to pick some of the sounds used in the piece.
This new music composition grew from a series of workshops with pupils with vision impairment at Joseph Clarke School. We visited the River Ching to explore the landscape through sound and collaborative listening. Together, we captured a sonic portrait of the environment using hydrophones and microphones.
The resulting composition combines percussion and whispered voices (water spirits) captured in the classroom with field recordings of the riverbank and its underwater world. This is combined with violin, synthesiser, piano,percussion and sound design for an immersive experience, evoking the flow of the river as it meanders through Epping Forest and slips quietly past back gardens, playing fields and allotments.
Working with the students was a lesson in listening for me too as many of them rely on their ears (and touch and smell) to navigate their surroundings. They were so enthusiastic and I enjoyed working with them.
Here’s a word cloud with some of their answers to the listening survey I gave them.
The River Ching
Find out more about this small urban stream and Ching Action Group
Epping Forest by F. H. Headley
The River Ching (often marked on maps simply as The Ching / Ching Brook) is a small, meandering river that starts at Connaught Water in Epping Forest and travels 10km to join the River Lea near the North Circular, north of Banbury Reservoir, Walthamstow.
As is the case with most North East London rivers, the River Ching is heavily modified with multiple weirs, structures, culverts, and stretches of concrete channel, which can block fish passage. The river has been artificially straightened, widened, and deepened in places. Although the River Ching is home to an array of wildlife such as perch, stone loach, European eel, and stickleback, fish biodiversity has declined in recent years due to physical barriers, pollution and poor water quality. The Ching Action Group is working in partnership with Thames 21 and others on this to improve biodiversity and water quality, restoring the river’s natural flow and supporting its rich aquatic life.
The River Ching Action Group is a group of volunteers that aims to improve the River Ching for people and nature along the river and enhance local people’s relationship with green spaces. They have been clearing the overgrown space to improve access to the river at Brookfield Path and continue to enhance habitats for biodiversity, run craft workshops and promote health benefits of being outdoors and in nature. They have also commissioned some beautiful animal sculptures and benches by chainsaw carver Marshall Lambert which have recently been installed on the site along with willow arches designed by willow weaver Deb Hart.
Listen to the River Ching is a Ching Action Group project, sponsored by Waltham Forest's ‘Make it Happen’ and supported by Highams Park Planning Group.
To find out more about the Ching Action Group’s activities sign up for a monthly email update from chingactiongroup@gmail.com or find on Facebook
Moth x Human Dutch Premiere
Kamerorkest van het Noorden perform Moth x Human at Groningen Forum
Photos from my lovely trip to Groningen in northern Netherlands on 8 November. 🇳🇱
A huge dank u to Kamerorkest van het Noorden for reaching out to me a few months ago to ask if they could get the score of Moth x Human to perform as part of LetsGro festival at the stunning arts centre Groningen Forum.
Moth x Human x Dinosaur
A special late-night opening of Oxford University Museum of Natural History with performance and panel discussion.
I found myself utterly charmed by [the music’s] haunting dreaminess ... combined with the atmosphere of the museum, [it] was almost hypnotic …a perfect example of collaboration between the disciplines of ecology and music. I’ve already bought a packet of seeds to encourage more moths into my garden. - Daily Info
A few photos from a special late-night opening of Oxford University Museum of Natural History on 17 October 2025 to launch the IF Oxford Science and Ideas Festival. It was a beautiful and unique evening performing Moth x Human, plus other works from my recent album, in this cathedral-like venue surrounded by dinosaur skeletons - rather apt as moths have been around since the Jurassic Period.
The performance was followed by a panel discussion and an insect exhibition from the museum’s archive.
Excellent fact from Dr Jenna Lawson: There are 30 million household gardens in the UK, amounting to more green space than all of the National Parks combined. Together we have the power to nurture beautiful mini ecosystems and make a difference.
Huge thanks to everyone involved in making this happen.
📷 Hugh Warwick
Moth x Human was commissioned by Oxford Contemporary Music with funding from PRS Foundation. A live BBC Radio 3 recording has been released on NMC Recordings.
New Release
BBC Radio 3 live recording released on NMC Recordings
‘Ellie Wilson’s haunting Moth x Human turned data about night-time moth activity into a beguiling synthesised fabric’ The Guardian ★★★★
‘So beautiful. Haunting’ CBC Radio
‘A moth symphony … each species has its own distinct musical sound’ Scott Simon, NPR
BBC Radio 3 live recording from PRS Foundation’s New Music Biennial out now on NMC Recordings
Ellie Wilson writes … As biodiversity declines globally, the quiet disappearance of insects often goes unnoticed. I wanted to compose a piece that not only reflected this loss, but also allowed the insects themselves —specifically moths — to help create it, resulting in a sort of interspecies dialogue between moths and humans.
I don’t think I realised quite how much time would be spent staring at spreadsheets before I could start making music. I was introduced to scientists at the UKCEH who use an automated, solar-powered device that records moth activity overnight. It has a light source to attract moths, a camera to photograph them and a computer plus AI to identify the species and timestamp each visit.
I selected a single evening of data and transformed it into music. A custom-built Max/MSP device let me bring this data into Ableton. Each moth’s visit was converted into MIDI, with species assigned a unique pitch or timbre. I condensed real-time monitoring of a whole evening into the 12-minute duration of the work, capturing the ebb and flow of moth activity throughout the night. At some points the moths have created short melodic fragments, and these can be heard later in the piece as repeating motifs in the cello and piano.
The piece sonically represents the impact of biodiversity decline by using data from the same evening but two contrasting locations. It opens with data gathered from Parsonage Downs in Wiltshire, a healthy chalk grassland habitat. Over the course of four hours, 80 different moth species were recorded. The sound world is rich, very active, demonstrating a thriving ecosystem. The closing section of the piece uses data from a monoculture farm in Cambridgeshire where pesticides are used. Here, only 19 moth species were recorded during the same four-hour period and the soundscape is noticeably more sparse and monotonous.
Moth x Human is scored for 2 violins, cello, trombone, piano and analogue synthesizer, but at the heart of the piece is the fixed media track built from the moth data, which plays alongside the live instruments. Most of the writing for the two violins is delicate (marked ‘gossamer – like moth wings’ in the score). They move in fast, whispered exchanged with lots of string crossing that moves from flautando to sul ponticello to bring out a wide range of overtones and timbres. This creates a sort of dreamy, fluttering soundworld. The cello brings contrast and character: playful pizzicati, glissandi, Bartók snaps, and even percussive tapping on the body of the instrument mimic the frantic flutter of a moth caught in a lampshade. I was very lucky to work with The Northern School of Art, who even designed a new module around my project. Fine art, animation, and photography students all created moth inspired artwork that was then 3D animated to make the visuals that are used in the live performance.
DIY Moth Trap
Discovering moths in my garden
A moth trap is a fascinating way to find out what kind of moths are flying about in your garden when you are asleep and it’s very easy and cheap to build one. Moth traps are designed to catch and observe moths, not to harm them, and the insects can be safely released the following day. You can also do your bit and submit your moth sightings to the National Moth Monitoring Scheme.
What do you need?
Bucket/crate with lid
egg boxes
a cylindrical bottle/pipe
inside of a lampshade, or similar (for holding bottle & LED strip)
cable ties
perspex bowl/microwave food cover (optional, for rain protection / bird deterrent)
Sharp knife for cutting hole in lid for funnel to slot into
large, shallow funnel (approx 20cm diameter) with wide hole at bottom (cut a standard funnel to size)
USB power pack
UV light (around 365nm UV) (nb. I’m using 395-405nm LED strip which is cheap and works OK but isn’t optimal for attracting moths. Visit Butterfly Conservation for alternatives
Charge your battery pack
Put some fresh foliage in the crate along with the egg boxes
At 11pm-12am put the moth trap in a sheltered area of your garden and switch the light on
6am-7am (or earlier!) come out in the garden to look at your catch! (UK Moth ID)
Gently move the moths to a shady hedge or tree to rest until dusk
NB: I am in no way an expert. There has been a lot of trial and error, plus friendly advice on Facebook groups like Moth Traps UK. There is plenty of information online about building moth traps for observation, and places where you can buy them ready to go.
A few of the moths I’ve attracted in my garden using my simple, budget-friendly set-up:
Moth trap at night
Moth x Human London Premiere
London premiere at Purcell Room, Southbank Centre
Team Moth
Ellie Wilson violin
Freya Hicks violin
Louise McMonagle cello
Huw Evans trombone
Jay Chakravorty piano/synths
Visuals: The Northern School of Art
Photos: Victor Frankowski taken at New Music Biennial, Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, London, Saturday 5 July 2025
Interviewed by Kate Hutchinson
Moth x Human is commissioned by Oxford Contemporary Music and supported by UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
New Music Biennial 2025 – PRS Foundation and Southbank Centre’s new music festival in partnership with Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture and BBC Radio 3 and NMC Recordings.
Moth x Human Bradford World Premiere
New Music Biennial premiere of Moth x Human at Bradford Loading Bay
Team Moth
Ellie Wilson violin
Freya Hicks violin
Louise McMonagle cello
Huw Evans trombone
Jay Chakravorty piano/synths
Visuals: The Northern School of Art
Photos: Victor Frankowski taken at New Music Biennial, Loading Bay Theatre, Bradford, Saturday 7 June 2025
interviewed by Elizabeth Alker for BBC Radio 3 New Music Show
Moth x Human is commissioned by Oxford Contemporary Music and supported by UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
New Music Biennial 2025 – PRS Foundation and Southbank Centre’s new music festival in partnership with Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture and BBC Radio 3 and NMC Recordings.
Moth x Human Trailer
Film created by students from The Northern School of Art, Visual Arts Faculty
A huge thank you to senior lecturer Matthew Burton and students at The Northern School or Art, Visual Arts Faculty, particularly BA (Hons) Animation and BA (Hons) Photography for creating the Moth x Human live visuals.
So many beautiful designs. Here are a few of my favourites …
A celebration of moths
Declining biodiversity and facts about moths
Have you seen a beautiful Elephant Hawk Moth, a Burnished Brass or a Ruby Tiger? Nocturnal pollinators can be so easily overlooked because they are active when we are asleep, yet they play an essential role within our ecosystem and are as important as bees and butterflies. Their numbers have dropped significantly – by 28% since 1968, and by 40% in southern Britain – impacting wildlife that rely on them for food, such as birds, bats, and small mammals. Decline is a result of habitat loss from agriculture, urbanisation, light pollution and climate change, which also shifts species distributions and lifecycles.
Moth Facts
Moths have been around since the start of the Jurassic period, more than 19om years ago
The first butterflies evolved from moths at least 50m years ago
Today there are around 2500 species of moth in the UK but only 59 species of butterfly
A group of moths is called an eclipse
Some of the 80 species of moth that appear in the data used for Moth x Human.
Ruby Tiger I Brimstone I Poplar Hawk I Common Carpet I Central Barrred Sallow I Muslin Footman I Rosy Footman I July Highflyer I Elephant Hawk I Burnished Brass I Small Magpie I Common Footman I Lesser Yellow Underwing I Dusky Sallow I Large Yellow Underwing I Flounced Chestnut I Antler Moth
Find out more about my new piece Moth x Human here
Further reading
Discover how you can create a moon meadow at home and in your local area and help our nighttime pollinators thrive. Free download leaflet
Field Trip with scientists at UKCEH
Field trip to farmland in Oxfordshire to film short documentary
Telling data stories through sound
The data sonification process.
When I first came up with the idea for Moth x Human I don’t think I realised quite how much time would be spent staring at spreadsheets before I could actually start making music.
The idea came to me one day at the breakfast table - to create a piece of music that explores declining biodiversity using insect activity. I was soon introduced to the biodiversity scientists at UKCEH who had recently built a solar-powered device for monitoring nocturnal insects.
AMI System
Each AMI system (Automated Monitoring of Insects) is set up to work automatically (no sitting outdoors with a flask and clipboard at midnight!) and features a light for attracting insects, along with high resolution cameras that can capture images of moths and classify them by species using AI. Over several months, they build a good picture of what biodiversity is like in different locations. The results are collected in a spreadsheet giving a timestamp and classification to each moth that lands.
Having looked at months of data from six different UK locations I selected:
1 August 2024 Parsonage Downs, Salisbury
A protected area and healthy habitat. Some of the best chalk grassland in the UK.
80 different moth species over a 4-hour period (midnight – 4am).
Audio recording from this night is buzzing with insect noise.
There was heightened activity in the early hours of 1 August, following a humid day at the end of a heatwave. I assume the hot weather had encouraged more moths to emerge from cocoons.
Telling data stories through sound
The Parsonage data was analysed in Excel to spot trends - how many times a certain species appeared and at what points during the night. The prepped data was then fed into a bespoke Max/MSP device and converted into MIDI, with each species of moth assigned a unique sound or note. I gave some of the more prominent sounds I’d created to my ‘showstopper’ moths; species such as the beautiful Elephant Hawk-moth and Burnished Brass.
And then a leap of faith - what happens when I press play?
Ellie talks through the process of uploading moth data via a bespoke Max/MSP device then assigning sounds via MIDI.
The ‘performance’ captures the ebb and flow of different species’ activity throughout the night. Four hours is condensed into almost 5 minutes (Part I of Moth x Human). At some points the moths create short melodic fragments and these can be heard later in the piece as repeating motifs in the cello and piano.
As a contrast, the end of the piece uses data from a poor habitat, audibly demonstrating declining biodiversity due to human interference.
1 August 2024 UK Farmland
Monoculture farm using pesticides
19 different moth species over a 4-hour period (midnight – 4am).
Audio recording from this night is eerily silent.
About Moth x Human
Moth x Human is an immersive audio-visual composition which combines cutting edge musical technologies and ecological research to highlight biodiversity through art. The piece will be presented for the first time at the two PRSF New Music Biennial events at the Southbank Centre, London, and in Bradford as part of its UK City of Culture celebrations.
At the heart of Moth X Human is Ellie’s musical response to the collection of sonic night-data from diverse species of moths from UK nature sites. The work, which inspires a sense of the wonder of nature, highlights the importance of a natural world that comes alive after dark.
The piece is written for 2 violins, cello, trombone, piano, synths, electronics … and moths.
For more info visit:
https://ocmevents.org/project/new-music-biennial/
https://www.ceh.ac.uk/solutions/equipment/automated-monitoring-insects-trap
New Music Biennial
New commission exploring moth biodiversity selected as part of PRSF’s New Music Biennial
I’m delighted that my new work Moth X Human has been selected for PRSF New Music Biennial 2025. Environmental and biodiversity issues are something I’m passionate about and this piece will highlight the impact that habitat loss, climate change and light pollution has on our nocturnal pollinators.
In collaboration with biodiversity scientists at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, my piece explores the positive use of AI for conservation. Part data sonification, part notated composition, the work is an interspecies dialogue. Alongside a small ensemble and electronics, moth activity data collected from UK locations is used to generate and manipulate sounds.
Dr Jenna Lawson of UKCEH, said:
“At a time of rapid biodiversity loss and climate change, it is essential that we understand and appreciate the value of nature and the consequences of habitat loss and destruction. The data we collect as scientists highlights both the remarkable diversity of nature and consequences of its loss, however the challenge often lies in presenting this information in an interesting and informative way.
“This project will showcase the wonder of nature through music, specifically focusing on moths and the natural world that comes awake while we sleep. These fascinating creatures are essential for our ecosystems, pollinating many flowers, trees and crops during the night, but are underappreciated. We hope Ellie’s interpretation of our scientific data through a musical composition will show people the remarkable night-time biodiversity of the UK.”
The piece will be performed at the two festival weekends:
6-8 June 2025 Bradford City of Culture
4-6 July South Bank Centre
Broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and released on NMC Recordings.
Commissioned by Oxford Contemporary Music
Supported by UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH)
Eavesdropping Festival, Cafe Oto, London
Photos & live concert video from Eavesdropping Festival, Cafe Oto, March 2024
The set was recorded by BBC Radio 3 and broadcast on New Music Show 10 August 2024
Extracts were also broadcast on Deutschlandfunk Atelier neuer Musik 21 September 2024
‘Violinist-composer Ellie Wilson plays a set which evokes both the very personal and landscapes and locations …her work braids together so many musical worlds’ - Tom Service (BBC Radio 3)
‘The weekend’s best moments mixed humility and adventure. Ellie Wilson’s set is full of personal resonances ... her grandfather’s reminiscences of the Second World War, field recordings from Epping Forest (which one of Wilson’s ancestors helped save from enclosure), electronics and improvisation on both violin and hardanger fiddle’ Wire Magazine
Photos (c) Dimitri Djuric/Eavesdropping
Podcast: Eavesdropping Festival preview
Podcast: chatting to Juliet Fraser (Eavesdropping) about violins, influences, musical genres, layers of history & moths
Hear me chat to Eavesdropping curator Juliet Fraser about my chance encounter with a violin at school, finding my own soundworld, exploring layers of history, musical genres and moths.
PODCAST (13mins): on.soundcloud.com/L8VcM
I will be performing works from my latest album Memory Islands at Cafe Oto Dalston, on Friday 22 March as part of the excellent Eavesdropping Festival.
GIG: tickets can be purchased at www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/eavesdropping-festival-2024-2/
Here's a tiny preview of what i'll be performing. There will be violin, hardanger fiddle, drones, glitches, improv, field recordings and the voice of my grandad.
PREVIEW (INSTAGRAM): tinyurl.com/2m5ee7wr
Memory Islands liner notes
Find out more about the works on Memory Islands plus read the introduction by Dr Andrew Thompson PhD MRCP - Cognitive Neurologist, London
Introduction by Dr Andrew Thompson PhD MRCP – Cognitive Neurologist, London
Angela Palmer (b1957) The Last Frontier, 2021
What do you remember?
Speaking to a lot of people about their memories, a few things quickly become clear.
Firstly, not all memories are alike.
The capital of France. How to ride a bike. The smell of my grandparents’ house. Passwords for a dozen online accounts. The reason I just walked through to the kitchen. How I felt on the day my little brother was born. I remember all of those things, but each in a different way – and each using different parts of my brain. That complexity of memory maps onto the intricate architecture of the brain, in ways that we are still working to fully understand.
Secondly, not all people are alike.
Those structures of memory work differently in each of us, and for some they are disrupted or damaged as we go through life. Sometimes this is temporary, as Ellie vividly describes that it was for her father in her liner note on Delta. Sometimes it is sadly permanent and irretrievable. Those people have taught us a lot of what we do understand about how our memories work.
Above all, it becomes clear that our memories – complex and fragmented and unreliable as they can be – are fundamental to who we each are as human beings.
It is through the lens of our memories that we see, and process, and understand everything that happens to us. They give the events of our lives context and meaning. It is not just a simple mental list of our experiences that does that. It is the emotions that are inextricably tangled through them. It is the re-living and re-telling of those experiences as we fit them into the stories of our lives. It is the memories that our families pass down to us, the memories of our cultures – even of the landscapes and buildings where we have lived. They all knit together to give us each our own narrative identity.
The works on Memory Islands offer fascinating and beautiful perspectives on that strange landscape of memory. Modern shapes are woven from the fabric of ancient sounds. Figures evolve as they are repeated, and take on new meanings, in new contexts. Words and sounds from the past resonate through to the present …
For me, this music explores how memory has made Ellie who she is – how memory makes each of us who we are.
OCM Boom Artist Scheme
I’ve been selected for the 2023-24 OCM Boom Artist Scheme.
Huge thanks to Oxford Contemporary Music for selecting me as one of their 2023-24 OCM Boom Artists.
Boom is OCM’s annual professional development scheme for music / sound artists / musicians and producers who are interested in creating and presenting inspiring contemporary music or sound based work outside of the concert hall and gallery (i.e. in unconventional spaces, outdoors, and in the digital realm). The scheme supports the development of artists (at any stage of their career) who are passionate about engaging with large and diverse audiences with contemporary performance, digital practice and installation work.
I’m looking forward to developing new skills and researching a new project. Watch this space!
We’ve had two one-day workshops so far. Here’s some photos from our meet-up at Hafan Yr Afon in Newtown, Wales on 29 September, where we chatted to sound artist Mark Anderson about his new outdoor sonic experience, Warning Notes.
