Cheryl E. Leonard

From walrus encounters at 79° North to watching the surface of the ocean freeze at -35° Celsius, Cheryl E. Leonard’s “near the bear” summons and celebrates the High Arctic. Over a decade in the making, the album investigates the far north via compositions inspired by the unique wildlife, environments, and human histories of Svalbard and Greenland. Three of the album’s five tracks developed out of the 2011 Arctic Circle expeditionary residency in Svalbard, which Leonard undertook in collaboration with New York-based visual artist Oona Stern. During this residency Leonard and Stern explored the western and northern coasts of Spitsbergen Island on a barquentine schooner, collecting materials for a series of art installations, performances, and videos. The following year Leonard began creating soundtracks for two videos shot by Australian artist Genevieve Swifte on the west coast of Greenland.

Across these five carefully-crafted compositions, Leonard weaves together sounds performed on natural and human-made objects found in polar regions, with field recordings and site-specific improvisations. Voices coaxed from stones, shells, driftwood, bones, sand, and kelp are entangled with wild soundscapes such as lapping waves, sea ice snaps, howling winds, and squeals from a frozen pond. This sonic synthesis hints at the myriad ways Arctic lifeforms and natural systems interconnect. The composer also brings her music into conversation with the rocky history of human enterprises in the Arctic by including sounds from saw blades, pyrex beakers, remnants of forsaken mining operations, and the ship she sailed on in Svalbard.