Listening in Relation

Soundscapes from the Listening Room

Authors

Keywords:

listening, field recording, soundscape, decoloniality

Abstract

This contribution to Soundworks includes four soundscapes representing sonic experiences from the southwest coast of so-called British Columbia, selected from a research project called Listening in Relation, a collaboration between the Canadian Association for Sound Ecology, The Only Animal Theatre Society, and the Basically Good Media Lab at Emily Carr University of Art & Design. The intention of the project was to explore listening, sound and material practice as embodied experiences in relation with the land. Listening in Relation included a soundscape listening room where people could relax with plants and low lighting and be immersed in the acoustics of soundscapes reflecting experiences of listening with more-than-human life. The four soundscapes included here were part of the listening room and each one includes a short accompanying text written by the composer. The works of Hildegard Westerkamp and Julie Andreyev are selections from field recordings of experiences listening with ravens, while the soundscapes of Julian Evans and Toni-Leah C. Yake are complex compositions led by the acoustics of more-than-human life. All the soundscapes weave human and more-than-human listening and sound-making as relationship.

Author Biographies

Hildegard Westerkamp

Hildegard came from Germany to Vancouver in 1968 and has lived on these ancestral lands of the
Coast Salish peoples ever since, gratefully acknowledging that her career as composer, radio artist,
educator and sound ecologist blossomed on these lands. Her work with the World Soundscape
Project at SFU and Vancouver Co-operative Radio in the 1970s gave her inspiration and creative
tools for a lifetime. Westerkamp’s music and writing intersects with environmentalism, acoustic
communication, radio arts, listening practices and soundwalking to activate an awareness that sound
is a decisive dimension of the world.

Julian Evans

Julian is an instructor teaching political ecology and political theory at the University of Victoria. He
holds a PhD from Western University (Canada) in Theory & Criticism, and his thesis considers
listening in relation to the ecology of the senses. He coordinates the Victoria bird language club and
creates soundscape compositions from field recordings with a focus on documenting urban
ecological restoration sites.

Toni-Leah Yake

Toni-Leah C. Yake (Euro-settler; Kanyen’kehà:ka, Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, Turtle Clan) is a composer-performer residing on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ territories. Her work extends to explore the land, memories, world-building and embodied response. Informed by dream interpretation and Kanyen’kà:ka epistemology Yake submerges into liminality through performances illuminated by archival recordings, synthesis, and noise.

Their practices are often influenced by kanyen’keha (Mohawk language) research, the interplay between conscious and unconscious realms, symbolism, relationships with unseen dimensions, and connections to archaic memories.

Formline designs and painterly imagery using stencils and colourful spray paint. The otter is featured in this painting over and over from different viewpoints. You can see an otter head, a full otter body, eyes, and the skull, all fractured and then merged abstractly as if it were a street wall with multiple layers of graffiti

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Published

18-06-2026

Issue

No. 229 (2026): Spring

Section

Soundworks