During his upcoming residency, sound artist Charles Harding will create a series of compositions based on sounds collected in and around the Charlotte Street Arts Centre’s 140 year old home.
Matt Carter
What sound does a building make? And how can these sounds be used to aid in the composition of new music? These are just a few of the questions sound artist Charles Harding plans to explore when he begins his residency at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre (CSAC) later this summer.
Currently based in Fredericton, Harding studied electroacoustic composition at Concordia University (2018-2022) and is building a career as a contemporary music composer working outside the boundaries of traditional music making.
“As a composer and sound artist specializing in electroacoustic/soundscape composition, I explore the intricate relationships between nature and technology through computer-based music,” says Harding in his artist statement. “My creative journey delves into the intersections of human activity and its impacts on the rest of nature, employing field recordings to design immersive sonic narratives.”
During his residency, Harding will employ a variety of microphones and recording techniques to capture sounds in and around CSAC. Creaky floor boards, echoing stairways, a potter’s spinning wheel, and the percussive rhythms of weekly dance classes are just a few of the sounds available for Harding to collect and manipulate during his residency.
This eighth month residency, made possible through ArtsNB’s Artist in Residence grant program, will stretch from the warm summer months to the coldest nights of the year providing a full range of seasonal sonic possibilities. Each month, CSAC will share a new soundscape composition accompanied by a short video explaining the piece and the source material. The residency will also include open studio sessions, and a live performance with a Q&A, and CSAC’s first immersive audio gallery exhibitions.
Charles Harding will be in residence from July 2024 until February 2025.
About the Artist
Charles Harding (he/him) is a sound maker and cultural worker currently living on the traditional unceded territory of the Wolastoqiyik, Mi’kmaq and Peskotomuhkati peoples also known as New Brunswick. He recently returned from Tiohti:áke/Mooniyang/Montréal, where he has been living and working since 2017. A dedicated member of his communities, he has been actively involved in music composition and facilitation for well over a decade. Computer music creation is at the centre of his process, whether he’s collaging sounds after patching a spaghetti of modular synth wires or vibing out on beaches with a field recorder to collect the tiny sounds of crackling seaweed. Between 2018-2022 he received formal training in electroacoustic composition from Concordia University and has since been working to create music that brings awareness to nature and human presence with priority on sustainable and conscious artistic practice. To this end he recently released a collection of soundscape pieces called Rain Beast (June 2022, Patient Records), which depicts a sonic collage of field recordings collected between 2018-2021 in New Brunswick and Montréal, QC. These pieces are meant to highlight some of the interspecies relationships and dissonances present in several key human-populated areas that Harding considers home.
Learn more about Harding’s work by visiting charlesharding.ca
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