The Glas-na-Bradan Wood Soundwalk: Listening for the Future

by Robert Coleman and featuring a live performance by HIVE Choir

In 2021 planting began at the Glas-na-Bradan Wood in the Belfast Hills. Since then composer and sound artist Robert Coleman has been following and documenting the growth of this new native forest. Through his research, field-recordings and interviews with the tree-planters, this soundwalk explores the site in its present day, its history and its potential in the future.

Participants in the soundwalk will be guided along a route through the Glas-na-Bradan Wood. They will be introduced to the biodiversity there through listening to field-recordings which Robert recorded on-site over the last year through a variety of methods. Robert has also collected data which will allow participants to listen to the projected future soundscape of the forest in years to come. This will facilitate a new mode of understanding the scale of changes taking place in our local environment and habitats, and in doing so provide an insight into the biodiversity on the island of Ireland.

HIVE Choir will further explore these themes with a live on-site performance intertwined into the narrative of the walk.

All this will be brought into the context of the local community at Glas-na-Bradan through recorded interviews with the tree-planters. Over the past two planting seasons they have shared their stories, connections to Glas-na-Bradan and hopes for the future of the site, while contributing to the future of this forest.

Meeting Point: Glas-na-Bradan Wood entrance

Hightown Road, Newtownabbey BT36 7AU, Belfast, UK.

(If using Google Maps set St Enda’s GAC, Hightown Road as your destination. As you approach St Enda’s carpark there is a small lane on the right hand side. You will see a gate and a sign marking the Glas-na-Bradan Wood. This entrance is the meeting point)

• Please bring headphones and a smartphone.

• Recorded audio for this walk is hosted on the Echoes app which you will need to download. Full information and links will be sent to you in advance of the event. Technical assistance will be available on-site before the beginning of the walk.

• The walk is completely outdoors and the route involves crossing uneven ground and so please wear appropriate footwear and clothing.

• The duration of the walk will be approximately 45 minuntes.

As places are limited, please only reserve a ticket if you will be present for the event

To get there by public transport: Coming from Belfast City the best option is to get the 1e bus to Edmund Rice College, Hightown Road and the wood entrance is a 10 minute walk from there)

Composer/sound artist and project director Robert Coleman

With live performance by HIVE Choir directed by John D’Arcy

With special thanks to the Woodland Trust NI

Composer Robert Coleman’s current work draws from numerous fields such as soundscape studies, site-specific art, field recording, and community and participatory arts. In 2019 he completed his Masters studies at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague with Yannis Kyriakides and Diderik Wagenaar and having also previously studied architecture his work often features spatial concepts and metaphors as frameworks for the composition process. He is currently a PhD student at the Sonic Arts Research Centre, Belfast focusing on Ecological Sound Art.

He has been commissioned by Crash Ensemble and New Music Dublin, the National Concert Hall Dublin, Irish National Opera, the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Tallaght Community Arts, violinist Larissa O’Grady and others.

Highly active in artistic direction he is a founding member and performer with Dublin based experimental music group Kirkos and in 2023 he founded the School of Wild Listening, a platform for the discussion and dissemination of ecological sound art. Its aim is to promote an understanding of the living world and the current challenges we face through open and accessible listening and creative sound events.

HIVE Choir is a vocal ensemble based in Belfast. Inheriting its membership and ethos from recent experimental choral projects in the city (Bird on a Wire and Belfast City Choir), HIVE is a testing ground for alternative musical notation, text scores vocal improvisation and sound games.

Under the direction of John D’Arcy, HIVE creates music from found text and often uses verbal notation and audio technologies, inviting participation from non-expert performers and audience members.

Formed in 2017, HIVE has worked with Metropolitan Arts Centre Belfast, Belfast Film Festival, Belfast Book Festival, Moving on Music, PS2 gallery, Irish Sound Science and Technology Association, and were ‘Artists in Resonance’ at Open House Belfast 2018.