iForest

“This forest will sing to you” Smithsonian.com

The iForest

The iForest is an acclaimed site-specific immersive sound experience combining music with nature by leading British composer Pete M Wyer. It  has been visited by more than 100,000 people at the Wild Center in upstate New York, has been described as “an extraordinary sonic experience” (John Schaefer, WNYC) and as “unforgettable, and deeply spiritual”.

Pete M Wyer

PETE M. WYER is a composer and musician from England whose works often involve storytelling and innovation, especially in the area of immersive sound. He has created scores for the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Juilliard, the orchestra of Welsh National Opera, The Crossing, BBC Television and the Royal Opera House as well as creating seven operas and music theatre works.

For more on Pete’s work please visit www.pmwmusic.com

See the trailer for iForest in Manhattan during June 3rd, 2018:

The iForest (or Immersive Forest) is Pete M Wyer’s large scale immersive sound installation. It began in 2005 as part of a research project at Portsmouth University under the title ‘The iPod Forest’. Since then, Pete M Wyer’s research and development  in immersive sound has led to the creation a raft of new works that include new ways of scoring, creating and experiencing music, as can be seen in this early score below:

As well as conventional items such as pitch, rhythm, tone and dynamic, scores use spatiality as a component, mapping the trajectory of sounds that move through space. This makes for a unique way of writing and experiencing music.

Fundamental to each iForest is a response to environment. Every space has its own acoustic ecology as well as its ecosystems and countless hidden stories. Great emphasis is placed on creating compositions that ‘participate’ with the environment. Many iForests feature the human voice, this is because humans are a part of the natural world and iForests aim to create a deeper connection for visitors, a reminder that we are not simply external observers, we are part of an intricate and complex web of interactions.

In 2017 a permanent iForest opened at The Wild Center, New York, it features 24 independent audio speakers distributed across woodland, featuring a 72 voice choir, The Crossing, singing primarily in the indigenous Mohawk language. Other iForests have been created for the Winter Garden, Manhattan (2016) and Inwood Hill Park, Manhattan (2018). More iForest installations are planned around the world in 2020 and 2021.

You can email Pete at: pete@iforest.org

Chief engineer, Jim Unwin at jim@iforest.org

Pete M. Wyer is represented by Summit Entertainment. Please contact jeff@summitentertainmentgroup.com