Climate change is the largest looming threat to humanity. According to the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in New Delhi, our annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have grown by about 70 times since the pre-industrial era, reaching nearly 36.4 gigatonnes (Gt) in 2019. Unless we bring them down to 18.22 Gt by 2030, we are headed for catastrophic climate events.

The first classical Music Blueprint on Async, "Element" translates the sounds of the natural world into the language of the string quartet with two types: before and after the destruction of natural resources caused by industrialization, colonization, and overconsumption. Each layer of the string quartet (violin 1, violin 2, viola, and cello) has four different states (fire, water, air, and earth) that are each played differently.

EARTH - matter of fact, march-like, full and deep tone AIR - otherworldly, harmonics, ponticello, airy tone WATER - legato, glissandi, pizzicato, syncopated FIRE - staccato, tremolo, agitated, chopping

A portion of sales from this project will be donated to the Clean Air Task Force (www.catf.us), who work to curb air pollution in all its forms through regulation at the US state and federal levels.

Composed by Kaitlyn Raitz Performed by the Atwood Quartet Recorded and mixed by Chris Leidhecker “After” sound designing by Eric Wright Art by Jana Stýblová