On August 2nd, UK-based soundscape artist Justin Wiggan is releasing Skydentities: Cloud Scanner the first album of music generated by clouds. The tracks were produced using a device, known as a cloud scanner, that was created by Wiggan in collaboration with artist-engineer Dominick Allen. The device collects light and colour from the clouds converting them into electrical signals to trigger musical notes via synthesisers. This setup allows musicians to use the cloud-generated data as a foundation for their performances. Wiggan invited select guest musicians to respond to the cloud-generated sounds, interpreting the sonic characteristics of clouds in real-time.

Wiggan, who also worked with the Cloud Appreciation Society to create the Memory Cloud Atlas to collect views of the sky on Cloud Appreciation Day, has named the tracks on Skydentities after each of the ten main cloud types. The album, he says, is “centred on our profound connections with the skies.” He hopes the music, inspired and created by clouds, will “encourage listeners to engage with nature and their surroundings in meaningful ways to take skies into people’s daily mindfulness routines as part of new wellbeing rituals.”

Skydentities is released on August 2nd and can be pre-saved now.

You can already listen to Altocumulus, the first track on the album.