Production Still: Tyler singing "sounding calls", 2026
Production Still: Austin singing across the river to Tyler, 2026
Production Still: Looking across the River Don, with Tyler singing towards Austin, 2026
Opera singers Austin Larusson and Tyler Prince, 2026In response to an invitation from Lassonde Art Trail to develop a new artwork focusing on “Art, Nature, Water, City,” Soundings uses walking as a method of attuning to the changed topographic and bathymetric profiles of the Biidaasige Park in Toronto’s Portlands.
The aim was to draw attention to our close-relation to, dependency on, and shifting politics with, the waters of Lake Ontario and its watershed through drawing attention to our changing proximity to the water-level as we walk along the park’s pathways.
Two groups of walkers are led along the pathways of Biidaasige Park by a singer performing “sounding calls”, as a way of attending to the fluctuations of both the water-level in Lake Ontario, and our own fortunes in relation to it.
Starting from the park’s Fire Hall, two groups walk along different paths on opposite banks of the River Don – one group staying on the north bank, the other crossing the pedestrian bridge to the south bank As they walk, the leader of each group – a trained opera singer – sings a slow and mournful refrain: a version of Joe Shore's “sounding calls” that offer an account of how far above the river/lake water-level the group is at that moment. This is reinforced by the cadence of the singers’ voice, which modulates according to whether moving closer to, or away from the water-level.
The group moves at a slow and steady pace along the path, on a route that seeks out inclines and declines; sometimes at vantage points above the park, at others at the water’s edge. The route acts as a score, plotting different calls through time, as the walkers make their way.
As the groups come into proximity with each other – and not necessarily within sight – they become aware of the other group’s singer – their voice drifting across the water, on the wind as it comes off the lake, as it blows through the reeds on the river bank. As this becomes apparent, the singers’ refrain starts to synchronize into a call-and-response pattern. The groups finally converge on the water-line on opposite banks of the Don River, with the singers’ now singing the same refrain as they reach the water’s edge. The wetlands become a place echoing with rhythmic voices, calling back and forth with differing calls such as: “Half One”; “Quarter Less Twain”; “Quarter Less Three”. (More information on sounding and ‘marking the Twain’ here.) The walkers, perhaps, draw parallels with the calls of migrating birds as they roost in Biidaasige Park throughout the seasons, and with familiar boat signals and whistles that can be heard around Toronto’s Inner Harbour, in close-proximity to the Park.
Thank you to Austin and Tyler for their virtuoso performances; to Niki and November for commissioning the work; and to all those who walked with us.