Palynopholy takes its name from palynology—the study of dust, pollen, and spores preserved in geological time. Through orchestral colour and texture layers of deep history are excavated,  revealing our profound and ancient connection with Mother Earth.

The work moves between geological time scales and human perception, between the monumental and the microscopic. The ensemble becomes a form of archaeological listening—a way of hearing across millions of years, where whale-shaped rocks and cellular fossils converge into a resonant meditation on memory, transformation, and our place within the vast continuum of life on Earth.

The Geology of the Blue Mountains with reference to Cox’s Road, by Col Bembrick 2015

Programme Notes: Palynopholy

This piece is inspired by a particular rock mass near my home in the Blue Mountains. This mass appears to describe the shape of Physeter macrocephalus, commonly known as a Sperm Whale.

On first contemplation the link between the ocean and the rocks of the Blue Mountains seemed remote until I started researching further, discovering that in fact there are many ocean fossils in the rocks and sediments of the mountains, mostly in the form of acritarchs, organic-walled microfossils which can be single celled, a cluster of cells, filaments or carbonaceous remnants of animal body parts.