Through music and art we bring nature back to life - and people back to nature.

Music and Art are at the heart of what we do. Forests Without Frontiers’ work has always focused on harnessing the power of music and art to support and finance the restoration and protection of nature and engage local communities in the process. Discover more below about our music projects, partnerships and record label or our incredible artist network.

MUSIC

PROJECTS

Interbeing, a multimedia project by Nico de Transilvania, which won Cambridge University’s Endangered Landscapes Programme’s (ELP) Art Prize in 2022, featured traditional songs magically woven into electronic compositions, mixed with nature soundscapes. Recorded in the Romanian countryside, it celebrates local music and the beauty of the landscape – one that is under threat. Accompanying film and photography brought the moving stories of the people and environmental challenges faced to life. All profits from the Interbeing album are being used to regenerate this endangered landscape – purchase a copy.

“Environmental preservation is intrinsically linked with the protection of ancient traditions, instruments and folk songs. If we lose the forests, we lose the communities that live in them, and their culture is dispersed. We need to protect both, as these people are the guardians of the forests and they have so much to teach us and pass on to the future generations.”
— Nicoleta Carpineanu, Founder Forests Without Frontiers

Using the successful Interbeing model, we are now working on projects in Sussex, UK and Bulgaria. For both projects we will partner with local musicians, artists, children and elders to record songs, poetry and stories inspired by the landscapes. Read more about our Bulgarian Artist Residency with Ivan Shopov and the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) or our Enchanting Forest project in Sussex, UK where we’re working with Wilderlands Farm.

Bulgarian Landscape

Nico de Transilvania and Ivan Shopov

Wilderlands Farm - Enchanting Forest project partners

Nico de Transilvania and Huw Williams (Wilderlands Farm)

PARTNERSHIPS

Band partnerships is another way we harness the power of music and art to support our work. In 2022, we teamed up with English synth pop band Hot Chip to help them offset the carbon emissions generated from their US tour. As musicians who care deeply about the planet, it was great to see them taking action to do something towards regenerating earth.

“We’re very pleased to be able to partner with Forests Without Frontiers to help offset the carbon on our upcoming tour by planting 800 trees. This is very important to us and we’re glad of their help.”
— Hot Chip

Hot Chip

Please get in touch if your band would be interested in discussing a partnership to restore nature for future generations.

RECORD LABEL

Muzică Without Frontiers (MWF) is a record label established by Forests Without Frontiers founder Nico de Transilvania and set up as a Community Interest Company in 2018. MWF not only releases albums, including Interbeing, but is also the label through which Nico de Transilvania performs at events across Europe, each time raising funds for Forests Without Frontiers.

MWF and FWF are united by the Without Frontiers concept, meaning that we want to celebrate diversity and oneness, and to cultivate a spirit of joy, playfulness and connection within everything we do.

Artists, musicians and influencers involved with the MWF project include: Abstract Source (producer/sound engineer), Monooka (singer, instrumentalist), Ben Cole (film editor), Evil Tom (Evil Nine – music producer), Nikodemus (DJ producer, record label – wonderwheel records), Gypsy Box, Equal-I, Jamie Catto (One Giant Leap)

ART

ARTIST NETWORK

Towards Rottingdean by Stanley Donwood

Forests Without Frontiers is supported by a network of artists dedicated to conservation who help us to raise awareness and funds to protect nature - Radiohead artist Stanley Donwood, photographer Jasper Goodall, and Brighton-based artists Fiona Whitehouse and Clara Wilkinson are among those who we have worked with recently.

Cedars by Jasper Goodall

All these artists have generously donated pieces of work for Forests Without Frontiers to auction or sell. As part of our recent Enchanting Forest campaign, and inspired by the Sussex landscape, Stanley Donwood created “Towards Rottingdean”, a limited-edition print with each of the 33 sales enabling us to plant 50 trees.

Jasper Goodall has also donated multiple prints to our fundraising campaigns, including ‘Cedars’, an outstandingly beautiful print which sold for the Enchanting Forest campaign too.

 Read more about our Artists for Forests.