Legendary sound artist Annea Lockwood and composer/improvisor Nate Wooley present a workshop accompanying the world premiere of their work: A Sound Map of the Columbia River. Made over two years and multiple trips along the river’s 1400+ miles, the two artists lived in the sounds of one of America’s largest, but somehow lesser known, rivers.
The project began with a conversation about Wooley’s upbringing near Astoria, Oregon and the feral mouth of the river. His stories of its attractive dangers sparked the desire in Lockwood to hear the sound of such a wild place. In a matter of months, the two were walking onto the Columbia’s South Jetty to record its confluence with the Pacific.
Three trips brought the pair from Astoria to the Columbia’s source in Canada. Along the way they talked with riverine people, experienced the effects of the area’s egregious damming and other industrial control, and they listened. Lockwood and Wooley made hours of recordings along the length of the river using a combination of stereo, shotgun, and underwater microphones (hydrophones). Upon returning, they sifted through their collection, pulling out the documents of the river at its most lively, communicative, and intimate. These clips were edited together to follow the river from source to mouth to give the listener a version of the Columbia’s essence as translated by two composers in love with its sounds.
The final version, delicately mixed in 5.1 surround sound is a three-hour audio journey, a sort of emotional cartography of one of the world’s great and powerful waterways. It is accompanied by a bespoke map of the recording sites designed by Susan Huyser and will be premiered in a very special concert presentation where audience can sit in the midst of the river’s sound and become immersed in its power.
This work is supported through the generosity of the Shifting Foundation and New Music USA.
Aotearoa New Zealand-born American composer Annea Lockwood (b. 1939) brings vibrant energy, ceaseless curiosity, and a profound sense of openness to her music. Lockwood’s lifelong fascination with the visceral effects of sound in our environments and through our bodies—the way sounds unfold and their myriad “life spans”—serves as the focal point for works ranging from concert music to performance art to multimedia installations.
Nate Wooley is an improvisor, composer, and writer. As an instrumentalist, he has been a soloist with the New York Philharmonic as well as working with composers such as Annea Lockwood, Éliane Radigue, and Anthony Braxton. His solo trumpet improvisations have been hailed as “exquisitely hostile” and “the most progressive campfire music ever.” His compositions are evolving amalgams of improvisation, folk music, text, and immersive experiences that communicate an arc of human experience from the fragility of being alone to the ecstasy of collectivity.
