for at least four or five hours, and from the hectic lifestyles that a lot of us have, it is a meditative state, through rhythm or through just a kind of meditation, a clearing out of your mind, or a really intense thinking period. It's good for me to work things out by walking. When I went there the second time and didn't go with or tell anyone I was going, I was just in my own space and walked around... the trees are just astonishing-looking. There's a chestnut avenue... it's in no way energetic, this walk, you just wander along and observe this stuff that's around, you these amazing old trees. I went for a walk with the National Trust tree expert, Brian [Muelaner], a fantastic guy, and he told me that he doesn't believe this, but the myth is that these trees were grown from chestnuts that they found on the Spanish Armada ships. It's a good story. Opposite it are loads of oaks, so there are the English and there are the Spanish. I love that story even if it's not true. They made this avenue of trees, and now 400 years later they're so weird and twisted, fantastic looking things, they're compelling in their beauty, their strangeness, they're really powerful. It's not like looking at the landscape around you, you're kind of in this world with these trees. How did the music itself take shape? AU: I started off with this very meditative thing, using lots