Polish musician Wojciech Szczepanik, who goes by the stage name Wojtek, has created what is believed to be the world’s first carbon-neutral album.
The piano recordings for “Atmosphere”, an album combining “modern classical and club music”, took place at Baltic Studios in east London, which runs on 100% renewable energy. It has previously produced music from artists such as Skepta, Arctic Monkeys and Paloma Faith.
Wojtek also prepared stereo recordings in his 100% renewable energy home studio in Berlin. He then purchased renewable energy certificates to offset emissions produced through mixing and mastering work at studios in Berlin and Warsaw, as well as flights between the cities.
The musician also reduced the carbon footprint of his travel by using a service, FlyGreenFund, that allows air passengers to buy sustainable fuel alternatives.
“It works in a similar way to the [renewable energy] certificates,” Wojtek told Notes from Poland. “You can buy exactly the same amount of fuel that was consumed during the flight and this will be delivered to an airport. This means that someone else will fly on biofuel instead of fossil fuel.”
“That was probably my biggest discovery in this project – you can actually fly carbon neutrally!” he adds.
For his airport transfers, the musician used AtmosFair, an NGO that allows customers to donate to offsets for greenhouse gases emitted through travel. He also reduced emissions from local transport by cycling whenever possible.
Once “Atmosphere” had been produced, Wojtek also chose green promotion and distribution methods. The video for one track, “Illusions”, was made using repurposed video footage and renewable energy, with other emissions again compensated for using a renewable energy certificate.
The musician distributed the album on streaming services rather than on physical CDs or vinyl – neither of which are fully ecological. His website recommends listening to the tracks on mobile devices, which create 30% less carbon emissions than using desktop devices.
He is, however, also working with a Polish company – bio-material producer MakeGrowLab – on a project which could potentially result in a natural and fully biodegradable CD disc.
According to his website, which charts the process of making his album carbon neutral, “Atmosphere” is the result of Wojtek’s research into how emissions are generated in the production of musical works, as well as the “climate footprint of the music sector beyond recording and production”.
The musician worked with environmentally friendly partners to produce the tracks, as well as receiving help from climate and energy experts “to map the potential emissions to be able to eliminate them and compensate in the most credible way”.
“I decided to produce the album in a carbon neutral way because generating more emissions would be against my conscience and it was a good opportunity to inspire other artists to create music [that is] more environmentally friendly,” says Wojtek.
He says that the album’s title, “Atmosphere”, refers both to the climate crisis – which he calls “humankind’s greatest challenge right now” – and to the ambience created by his music.
The seven tracks combine classical and electronic music, blending piano recordings with synthesised sounds, electronic drums and samples from the voices of his family and friends, reports Rytmy.pl.
The zero-carbon album project follows Wojtek’s other environmentally friendly lifestyle choices: according to his website, the musician has cut out meat from his diet, reuses materials and saves water, as well as aiming to live with zero waste.
Main image credit: press materials
Juliette Bretan is a freelance journalist covering Polish and Eastern European current affairs and culture. Her work has featured on the BBC World Service, and in CityMetric, The Independent, Ozy, New Eastern Europe and Culture.pl.
