Municipality spends half a million on recording tree sounds: 'Good investment'

One of the country’s most financially strained municipalities has decided to spend 460,000 SEK on a project to record the inner sounds of trees. The purpose is said to be to raise awareness of the importance of trees among the public.

Branches and leaves can make sounds, but can trees make more than that, and what is it like inside a tree? This is what the artist Familjen will find out. The inner sounds of the trees will then be included in a remix of the song ‘Malmö stad’.

In total, taxpayers have had to pay nearly half a million SEK for the film production and artist collaboration.

According to Cornelia Grimshorn, project manager for communication at the Malmö City’s property and street office, they have worked with an agency that helped them come up with the idea.

– We want to inform the people of Malmö about how important it is that we invest in trees. For example, we plant trees along the streets in our city renovations, and then we want to communicate that we are actually working on this and investing in it, says Cornelia Grimshorn to public television.

Climate adaptation

According to Grimshorn, it is very important to communicate how the city is developing, and it is said to concern the people of Malmö every day. Trees, in particular, are described as ‘a very important part of the larger climate adaptation that Malmö needs to carry out’.

– A good investment, she says.

In 2020, Malmö City spent nearly half a million SEK on a so-called sound identity.