Voices That Made A Wood

Voices That Made a Wood is a multi-channel sound work that gives voice to the communities, both human and nonhuman, that have helped shape the Glas-na-Bradan Wood, a newly developing woodland in the Belfast Hills, Northern Ireland. From 2021 to 2024, Robert followed the growth of this site through extended on-site listening, seasonal recordings, ecoacoustic monitoring, and interviews with volunteer tree planters involved in a Woodland Trust project that has planted over 150,000 trees across the area. The site currently encompasses multiple emerging habitats, including species-rich grassland with native scrub and streams on the lower slopes, and exposed heathland on the upper slopes, making it a landscape in rapid ecological transition. The composition draws from this extensive archive of recordings, interweaving the composer’s reflections on the place with the voices of tree planters and nonhuman inhabitants alike. Present-day soundscapes merge with future hopes for the area, inviting listeners to experience the site as a place shaped by collective care, ongoing ecological processes, and nonhuman agency. The creation of this work was funded by the Arts Council of Ireland Music Bursary Award 2025. --- Robert Coleman is a composer and sound artist whose work draws from numerous fields such as soundscape studies, site-specific art, field recording, and community and participatory arts. He completed a PhD in Sonic Arts at SARC, Queen’s University Belfast in December 2025, where he was supervised by an interdisciplinary team from Sonic Arts and Biological Sciences. He has been commissioned by Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Sound Scotland, 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. 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 Robert has a pressing interest in interdisciplinary collaborations and has worked with various artists such as the Experimental Film Society, Pim Piët (visual artist/designer) Laura Sarah Dowdall(dancer/ choreographer with RUNNING BLIND), Mihai Cucu(visual artist), Slipdraft(lighting design), Emily DeDakis(writer/dramaturg) amongst others.