SONIC TRAILS – a new experience at Earl W. Brydges Artpark State Park (Near Niagara Falls)
Located near Niagara Falls is Earl W. Brydges Artpark State Park, where Artpark & Company will present SONIC TRAILS (beginning 5/15). This reactive, audio experience combines art, nature, and technology. Using a mobile app with geolocation technology designed by the Holladay Brothers, Artpark dynamically alters the listener’s experience as they explore their surroundings.
SONIC TRAILS will feature some of the most influential BIPOC voices in music – the Holladay Brothers, Kronos Quartet, Rhiannon Giddens, and Yo-Yo Ma, Indigenous artists curated by Michele-Elise Burnett, and DJ Spooky. Participants will have an opportunity to observe Artpark with an accompaniment of music, spoken word, or soundscape – an immersive choose-your-own-adventure.
SONIC TRAILS will begin on May 15 and runs through September 30, 2021.
The Holladay Brothers, composers and multimedia artists, are pioneers of location aware experiences: they create and map music to a physical landscape, released as mobile apps, using GPS to dynamically alter the music as the listener explores their surroundings. They will kick off SONIC TRAILS on May 15 with a reprisal of Cover The Water, an original music composition by The Holladay Brothers birthed out of the pandemic limitations and during their artistic residency at Artpark in 2020. The initial project evolved into a larger collaboration between The Holladay Brothers, Sozo and Artpark who have partnered with the dynamic and inclusive group of artists to bring their compositions to life through the custom app.
Artpark will offer a second walk beginning May 15, Her Moccasins Talk: Honoring all our Relations, an Indigenous journey exploring the Natural World with gratitude, based on the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address. Curated by Indigenous bridge builder Michele-Elise Burnett, along with local First Nations Knowledge Keepers, Storytellers, and singers who will take visitors through a mindful journey led by a nurturing matriarch voice, songs, sounds and effects based on giving thanks to all our relations. Along the path, our older and wiser relatives will share teachings, Indigenous Consciousness and ways of knowing which emerges from a space within us that is informed and governed by our natural relationship with creation, they will experience the landscape from an Indigenous lens and embrace being one with the Natural World. The path along the Mighty Niagara will help guests to look inward, facing oneself, and using this time to reflect, think analytically and critically, and with the key goal of ensuring balance and harmony with all living things.
Launching on June 19, Grammy Award-winning musician, historian and Silkroad Ensemble Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens, in collaboration with celebrated Grammy Award-winning cellist Yo-Yo Ma, will debut Juneteenth: From The Past To The Living Present. Weaving banjo, folk music, and storytelling, this guided walk centers the profound contributions of African Americans on American culture, music and history, seeking to imagine a society of inclusion, connection, empathy and justice.
Later in midsummer on July 3, Paul Miller AKA DJ Spooky brings his unforgettable transcendental sound to Artpark trails with a high energy electronic music experience, premiering three news tracks for the park visitors to hear first. You can take these heart racing beats for a run or bike ride through Artpark to experience the trails in a whole new way.
The season closes with a collaboration with world-renowned Kronos Quartet and its series of global commissions, 50 for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire. Original compositions from select women composers will weave together to transport you worldwide through an intricate musical legacy of tradition and innovation. The experience focuses optimism, beauty and discovery to compose a global story of interconnectedness.
ARTPARK SONIC TRAILS, ARTISTS & WORKS
May 15, 2021 – September 30, 2021
Launching May 15, 2021:
Her Moccasins Talk
Semiah Smith, The Thanksgiving Address Song and Opening Address in Mohawk
Elder Jackie Labonte, The People Address, The Waters Address, The Trees Address, The Birds Address, The Four Winds Address, the Thunder-beings Address, The Sun Address, the Stars Address in Mohawk
Keeya Greene Dury, Mother Earth Address, The Animals Address, The Creator Address in Tuscarora
Makenzie-May Smith, The Fish Address, The Plant World Address in Tuscarora
Jordan Smith, Old Moccasins, Women’s Dance Song, Old Fish Dance, Shake the Bush Dance, Smoke Dance
Gary Parker, Friendship Dance, Rabbit Dance Song, Elm Flute Song, Cedar Flute,Orignial Gratitude Song, Round Dance Song for the Ancestors, Original Song
Strong Water Women, Love Song, Niibi Water Song by Grandmother Josephine, Snake Medicine by Val King, The Eagle Song gifted by Odemin Kwe Singers, Unity Stomp Dance, Cherokee Morning Song, Wensiiryo by Niiki Shawana, The Long Walk Song
Adrian Harjo, Drum and Jingle Song, Honor Song for the Natural World
Josie Lavalle and Cherie Poirier Bernard, Believe Song, Balance Song, Health Healing Song
Quinna Hamby, Tuscarora Water Song, Grandmother Moon Address in Tuscarora
Carin Jean White, Earth Song
Darryl Tomeh Tuscarora, Flute Bridge
Michele-Elise Burnett (spoken Address in English throughout)
Cover The Water is a new site-specific composition by multimedia artists and composers The Holladay Brothers.
Launching June 19, 2021:
Juneteenth: From the Past to the Living Present
Rhiannon Giddens (featuring Yo-Yo Ma)
Build A House
Launch July 3, 2021
Global Futures featuring works from 50 for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire
Susie Ibarra, Pulsation
Hawa Kasse, Tegere Tulon (2018)
Aftab Darvishi, Daughters of Sol
Nicole Lizée, Darkness is Not Well Lit
The Invisible Hand
Paul Miller (DJ Spooky), Written on the Water, The Copernicus Complex, Dark Skies, Mr Hashtag
