Aussi Music Site on Michael Stipe potential new album and collab with Beatie Wolfe

Denver Clocktower, From Green to Red projection, photos

Cool Hunting celebrates Michael Stipe and Beatie Wolfe world first eco record

The world’s first commercially available sustainable bioplastic record will be a split single, featuring songs by Michael Stipe and Beatie Wolfe. Limited to 500 copies, and made by Evolution Music in collaboration with climate emergency organization EARTH/PERCENT, the album (available for pre-order today) comprises Stipe’s debut solo track “Future, If Future” and Wolfe’s “Oh My Heart.”

Founded by Brian Eno, EARTH/PERCENT focuses on five key issues: “greening music, energy transition, climate justice, legal and policy change, and protecting nature.” All proceeds from sales of the record will go to the organization’s grantmaking fund.

Wolfe tells COOL HUNTING that her involvement in the project was organic, and began when she gave a talk at SXSW with Eno earlier this year. The talk was about “our environmental work and how art and nature are core to our humanity.” Next, Wolfe worked with EARTH/PERCENT on their Earth Day initiative, “which evolved into this very special limited edition bioplastic 12-inch release with Michael Stipe and myself, pioneered by Evolution Music. This project felt like the perfect fit as it was records that first imprinted on me as a kid and made me want to reimagine the vinyl for the digital age which led to a series of new formats for music. So this release really combines two of my greatest loves: the environment and records.”

She tells us that she selected the track because its theme is apt for the project, and for the overall mission. “I felt like ‘Oh My Heart’ was the right song for this eco release as it’s a cry for the planet and humanity at this point in time. EARTH/PERCENT had released the live version of the song (which I performed at the Nobel Prize Summit) for their Earth Day campaign so it was great to have this unreleased studio version available for the first time. And it was wonderful to hear the two songs side-by-side, as they felt like the perfect complement to one another.”

Images courtesy of EARTH/PERCENT

UPROXX features Michael Stipe x Beatie Wolfe's Bioplastic record for EarthPercent

Michael Stipe’s Single Released On A New Type Of Vinyl Record Is The First Of Its Kind

SEPTEMBER 2, 2022

Michael Stipe is changing the game this Friday (September 2) on both the music front and the environmental front. His new, double-sided single “Future If Future” (a song originally released in 2018) will be the world’s first commercially available bioplastic 12″ vinyl record, coupled with Beatie Wolfe’s “Oh My Heart.”

MICHAEL STIPE

This release is part of a larger Bandcamp project in collaboration with “Future If Future” producer Brian Eno’s environmental charity EarthPercent that will include over 100 other songs. The bioplastic vinyl, designed by British music sustainability organization Evolution Music, is said to be “a genuinely revolutionary moment for both the music industry and record collectors, offering a non-fossil fuel future for vinyl recordings that globally amount to around 180 million LPs — or 30,000 tons of PVC — a year. The solution uses circular economy principles to replace the harmful production and use of single use plastics and minimize waste in the music industry.”

BEATIE WOLFE

The goal is to replace polyvinyl chloride, a plastic labeled “the most environmentally damaging” according to Greenpeace, with a more viable alternative. The single will be limited to 500 copies pressed on fossil-fuel-free vinyl. Stipe says, “Simply showing that this type of solution-based project is possible opens pathways to a brighter future.”

Check out images of the vinyl and Wolfe holding a test pressing above.