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.
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.
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