Music Like Air. How the Hazy Flora Project Turned Breath and CO₂ Into Art
Reform.news Editorial Team · 6 November 2026, 20:34
https://reform.news/en/music-like-air-how-the-hazy-flora-project-turned-breath-and-co-into-art/Belarusian sound artists Mufer and Ilya Semashkevich, who founded the Hazy Flora project in Poland, have released their debut album, “CO₂ in Stasis”. The release features 15 electronic compositions created in the science art genre, with the physical and chemical properties of carbon dioxide serving as sound parameters.
Hazy Flora works at the intersection of electronic music, performance, installations and sensory systems. For their new album, the artists used scientific data on CO₂ to create synthesiser and MIDI structures: the timbre, frequency and duration of sounds are determined by the gas’s physical properties. The conceptual foundation of the work is the relationship between human breathing and photosynthesis in plants. The music’s rhythm refers to the rate at which humans release carbon dioxide and plants process it.
Music That “Breathes” With the Audience
A distinctive feature of the project is its connection to a live audiovisual system. During performances, the CO₂ concentration in the space is measured using a specially built DIY sensor and converted into sound in real time through Ableton and synthesizers. As a result, the music is literally drawn from the air and “breathes” together with the people in the room.
The track titles refer to specific scientific terms, ranging from “Molecular Weight” and “Pressure” to “Boiling” and “Solubility”. Each composition is a beautiful, atmospheric ambient soundscape.
The music of “CO₂ in Stasis” stands out for its meditative quality and subtle beauty. It is a journey that helps synchronise the mind and body and, in a sense, become part of a shared space of elements and particles. At the same time, listening to the release raises a natural question: who is the principal creator of these soundscapes – the artists, carbon dioxide or technology? Or all of them together? And what should we call what we hear?
As an artistic statement, “CO₂ in Stasis” looks firmly to the future. Breath as music? Or music as ether?
You can listen to “CO₂ in Stasis” here.