Wild River State Park artist-in-residence JG Everest places one of his speakers—encased in a felt vessel that resembles tree bark—on a branch. Photo: Brett Blocker
Discover how JG Everest uses sound to create engaging and interactive art experiences in nature.
A walk through the woods reveals a natural symphony: birds chirp, the wind moves through the trees and water burbles in nearby streams. At Wild River State Park, a composer and musician is collaborating with nature to introduce new elements that invite visitors to listen closely.
JG Everest has been the artist-in-residence at Wild River State Park since October 2024. During his residency, he has created sound gardens for various events at the park. “[Sound gardens] are outdoor art installations made up of many intersecting layers of art and information,” Everest says. These layers include dance, history, music and poetry, which are often furnished by the park’s many events and invited collaborators.
Each sound garden is created using 70 or more small sound speakers spread throughout an outdoor space, Everest says. “The layout of the space, the landscape and how the speakers are placed is just as important a part of the composition as the music itself,” he says. “So every step, every turn of the head results in a different mix and orientation of the music.”
We spoke with Everest about his residency and how he creates his self-guided sound and performance installations.
What interested you about the MNPAiR Artist in Residence position at Wild River State Park?
JG Everest: For me, since my work is site specific and also created for outdoor, natural settings, artist residencies are essential to my creative process and my work. I have to be in relationship with a particular place in order to create a soundtrack accompaniment for the concert and dances that are already happening there. Developing a relationship takes time and proximity—really being there, showing up. In order to hear and sense everything and join the conversation, I need to immerse myself in the site and spend a lot of time there learning about the history, ecology and people whose lives are intertwined with the place.
How have you been immersing yourself in the park?
JE: I recently spent two weeks in February staying at the Guest House in the middle of the park, where I set up my portable recording studio and brought several instruments. [I] spent every day hiking, skiing and just wandering around the park and translated or channeled that energy into musical ideas and sketches back at the cabin. It was incredible. I hope to schedule several more onsite sessions like that throughout the spring and summer.
JG Everest’s sound garden at Wild River State Park’s February 8 Candlelight event. Photo: JG Everest
What has been your process for creating a sound garden at Wild River State Park?
JE: My creative process usually begins with a great deal of mapping the site—literally drawing a map of the site by hand with pencil and paper on a clipboard as I walk around and just notice everything: paths, trees, sounds, views, changes in elevation, etc. Mapping gives me a sense of what I’m creating for, but most importantly [it] brings me into a relationship with the site.
I will also bring instruments along with me to the site—a guitar or a small keyboard—just to try ideas and accompaniments and see what grows out of my own rooting in that place. Then I’ll record those [musical] sketches and listen back to them to see what grabs me, and then I build off of those that do. It’s really like planting a creative garden. When I plant myself here, what fruits do I produce? It’s a very natural process with lots of revision and honing in, layering and building in more and more detail and form.
How do you incorporate the natural environment into your sound gardens?
JE: I spend a great deal of time listening to the existing sounds of the site so that I can create, compose and design an accompaniment to the concert that is already happening—leaving space both physical and temporal for the birds, the wind through the trees, the water, etc. to sing their songs. My sound speakers are not playing loudly. They are intended to just be an accompaniment. It is incredible when a bird joins in and starts singing along with the rest of the orchestra. My favorite moments.
A visitor experiences a sound garden installation at Silverwood Park in the summer of 2024. Photo: Tamar Serin
What role has collaboration played in your performances?
JE: Collaboration is a hugely important part of my creative process and always has been. It’s both my inspiration and my way of challenging myself to go in new directions. Sound gardens allow me to collaborate with so many different artists in so many different disciplines, but also with naturalists, historians and park rangers, not to mention the birds, trees and water!
My favorite moments are when I’m roving through a sound garden with an instrument, like my guitar or a human wind chime, and I come into a “sweet spot” intersection between certain speakers, certain sounds and other musicians or dancers, and we improvise together with birds, wind and audience members. It’s ultimately those moments of serendipity and collaboration that hold all of the magic and power for me and that I’m most thrilled by.
April Sound Gardens
This month presents two opportunities to experience JG Everest’s sound gardens for yourself at Wild River State Park.
Spend an afternoon learning about the process of producing maple syrup. Visitors will be given a maple syrup passport that walks them through various volunteer-led stations, from identifying a sugar maple tree to checking out the maple syrup evaporator.
Photos: Wild River State Park
“I’m re-mounting my Sugarbush Sound Garden, which I composed at the Akiing Water Protectors Welcome Center in 2022,” Everest says. “It’s really exciting to have the Sugarbush Sound Garden happening as part of an actual sugarbush event again.”
In addition to a wood-fired cooker that will be cooking down the sap, Everest says there will also be fire pits and several benches inside the sound garden. “It’ll be a chance to just relax and enjoy being there in the park,” he says.
“My friend, Tony Drews from Nashke Native Games, will be there leading some Ojibwe language games and connecting us to the cultural significance of the iskigamizigan (sugarbush) around the fire,” Everest says.
To (literally) top off the event, visitors will also have the opportunity to enjoy ice cream topped with local maple syrup.
All ages. Free. 11 a.m.–3 p.m. April 5
Enjoy a day immersed in nature at Wild River State Park’s 42nd annual celebration of spring. The day is full of a multitude of activities including arts and crafts, bird watching, hikes, presentations and storytimes.
“The park is working to restore its endangered oak savannah ecosystem, so that’s the focus for EarthFest,” Everest says. Various experts will give presentations and lead hands-on activities relating to this theme including a Woodpecker Walk & Talk at 10 a.m., a keynote presentation by poet and essayist Laurie Allmann at 1 p.m. and an opportunity to help replant the oak savannah at 3 p.m.
Everest’s Earth Day Sound Garden will be playing outside the visitor center from noon–5 p.m.
All ages. Free. 7:30 a.m.–5 p.m. April 26
Wild River State Park, 39797 Park Trail, Center City; 651.583.2925; dnr.state.mn.us
JG Everest will be the artist-in-residence at Wild River State Park through August 2025.
JG Everest
Instagram: @jgeverest
Facebook: JG Everest
