Gardens of Light
Sound design for the illuminated First Nations Garden at Montreal's Botanical Garden — an immersive nighttime journey carried by the voice of Innu poet Joséphine Bacon and the songs of Moe Clark.
Role
Sound Design
Collaborator
Moe Clark
Venue
Montreal Botanical Garden · Espace pour la vie
The Story
Gardens of Light is Montreal's signature autumn event at Espace pour la vie, Canada's largest natural science museum complex, drawing 2.5 million visitors annually. The First Nations Garden illumination guides visitors through an immersive nighttime journey "into the circle of life," carried by the voice of Innu poet Joséphine Bacon, whom we recorded in studio, and the music of Moe Clark.
The sound design wove together the flutter of wings, wolf packs, wind and water, all integrated with LED light installations along walking paths through the garden.
Sound had to work outdoors, at night, across a sprawling landscape where visitors move at their own pace, the opposite of a controlled environment. Every element had to breathe with the space.
This project sits at the intersection of everything I care about most: nature, mythology, ancient teachings, and sound that shapes how people move through a physical space. The blue mist rolling through illuminated trees, the golden arch of water catching light, people standing around a glowing bowl under ancient branches, sound makes those moments feel alive, the invisible thread that binds light, space, and story into one.