In RESIL I, Jacob Mühlrad explores life on Earth – from the emergence of the biosphere to the complex systems that make life possible. The work grew out of conversations with Carl Folke, scientist and director of the Beijer Institute, on subjects including resilience and the ways in which different processes in nature are interconnected and influence one another.

The music takes as its point of departure the long history of life and the pivotal changes that have shaped it. One important idea is that small events can have consequences for entire systems – as when early organisms began to produce oxygen, thereby transforming the conditions for life on Earth.

Mühlrad has also sought musical counterparts to the structures of nature and the laws of physics, drawing among other things on the harmonic series and frequencies found in nature. RESIL I is the first part of a work in two parts. In RESIL II, the perspective shifts towards the future and the question of sustainable life in a world profoundly shaped by humankind.