NEW: Soundscape Audio Experiences at Pyramid Hill

Introducing Soundscapes at Pyramid Hill, six original immersive audio experiences inspired by the nature of Pyramid Hill’s park grounds. The exhibition will open with a launch party on Friday, June 20, 2025, and be digitally available through November 2027. 

Pyramid Hill Soundscapes is an immersive audio experience launching this summer, designed to open visitors’ senses and deepen their connections to art and the natural world. Whether visitors are seeking inspiration, relaxation, or a fresh way to engage with the Park, Soundscapes will transform their visit into a multisensory adventure. 

The Longest Day: Summer Solstice and Soundscape Launch 

The Soundscape experiences will launch on the summer solstice (June 20, 2025) with a celebratory event; The Longest Day. Guests will start the evening with time to unwind and explore the Soundscapes across the Park, then return to the main event area for live music, food, drinks, and creative activities, including:  

• Two digitally-available guided meditations created by The Well (Cincinnati, OH) 

• Live music by Ryan Hall of Whited Sepulchre Records, Soundscape artist SHERMVN with Victoria Lekson, and experimental sound artist Eve Maret 

• A hands-on crafting experience 

• Hard and soft drinks available for purchase 

• Picnic charcuterie boxes and wine selection by The Farmer's Collective (pre-order only) 

• A sunset salutation to close the evening with intention and joy 

Event Details: 

Friday, June 20, 2025 

5PM – 9:30PM 

RSVP: pyramidhill.org/the-longest-day 

Soundscapes at Pyramid Hill 

After receiving a grant from the Ohio Arts Council, Pyramid Hill partnered with Cincinnati-based arts and wellness organization, The Well, to commission original works from Ohio musicians and sound artists. The resulting works range from meditative compositions and ambient sound art to an interactive piece based on 3D scans of ancient sculptures. 

"The Well is delighted to collaborate with Pyramid Hill in commissioning six new place-based Soundscapes from talented Ohio artists. We eagerly anticipate the public experiencing these unique sonic creations in harmony with Pyramid Hill's sculpture art and naturescapes. As part of this project, The Well has also contributed their own new guided meditations, offering visitors moments of peace and contemplation during your visit." - The Well

Before creating their compositions, participating artists explored the Park and identified areas in which they found inspiration, including the rolling hilltop vistas of the Overlook Patio, the dogwood trees in the Native Plant Garden, the monoliths of John Isherwood’s sculpture Age of Stone, and the ancient Greek and Roman artwork in the Pyramid House. The artists then created works reflecting on topics like the history of the site, materiality of sculptures, human interventions in the landscape, and celestial events.

The resulting works are both a reflection of the artists’ experiences and an invitation for visitors to Pyramid Hill to experience the site in a different way. As visitors explore the site, geofenced technology will automatically prompt each soundscape experience via smartphones. Visitors are encouraged to bring headphones or a personal listening device to experience the installations.

Sound artists (from left to right) Daniel, Sonya, and Talon Silverhorn in a recording session at The Well's studio

The Soundscapes project was guided by Guest Curator, Maria Jenkins. Jenkins is an interpreter, public programmer, and artist from Cincinnati, OH. She currently serves as the Assistant Director of Adult and Studio Programs at the Cincinnati Art Museum and has previously held positions at Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. She holds a BFA in Painting from Kent State University and an MA in Gender Studies from Roosevelt University and is a Certified Interpretive Planner through the National Association for Interpretation. 

Participating Artist Bios 

J. Howd 

Resonant Matter 

These soundscapes explore the sonic life of sculpture, myth, and material decay. Centered on three sculpted figures from Pyramid Hill’s collection—Persephone, Athena, and an unidentified Muse—the installation transforms these ancient artifacts into immersive soundscapes that reflect their enduring presence, mythic resonance, and inevitable physical erosion. Installed inside Pyramid Hill’s iconic Pyramid House, Resonant Matter invites visitors to engage with these figures not just as visual objects, but as resonant bodies within which myth, material, and time converge. 

The soundscapes play on continuous loops through analog tape players placed beside each piece. As the tapes and players gradually lose fidelity over time, they introduce distortions—added noise, reduced clarity, and altered tones—all of which mirror the slow erosion of the artifacts themselves. Resonant Matter invites a quiet contemplation of impermanence and continuity of change. 

Sonya and Daniel 

Eclipsody: Transmission from the Veil 

On April 8, 2024, artists Sonya and Daniel performed a soundscape in observance of the rare and powerful moment of the total solar eclipse live at Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park. They created an immersive sound experience using an array of acoustic instruments. Gongs formed the backbone of the piece to evoke the tectonic shifts of celestial movement, with crystal and Tibetan singing bowls adding shimmering harmonic layers that echoed the dimming of the sun. When sunlight returned, the artists responded with a gentle resurgence of sound, subtle tones and melodic fragments that welcomed the light. The music captured a sense of renewal, awe, and quiet transformation. 

Pyramid Hill invited Sonya and Daniel to recreate the experience through a recorded soundscape, preserving not just the musical elements but the energy and emotional resonance of that extraordinary day. Their work offers more than a memory, it opens a portal to the vibrational essence of the eclipse, inviting listeners to reconnect with the awe, mystery, and living spirit of the earth and sky. 

Talon Silverhorn 

Under the Dogwood 

This spontaneous flute composition was created in conversation with the land, the wind, and the subtle rhythms of the Native Plant Garden. This piece is less a performance and more a reflection—a moment of listening, breathing, and responding. The melody was shaped by the garden’s birds, rustle of leaves, and even the silences. 

While recording, Silverhorn thought about the people who work to maintain and shape places like this, including his own people, the Shawnee. The piece holds a kind of longing; What was lost when they were removed from this part of the world? What if their removal hadn’t happened? What art might have been made here, and by whom? Maybe this song is one small way of bringing his ancestors to this place to enjoy it alongside him. 

SHERMVN 

Polylith 

This work is an immersive sonic composition that transforms Age of Stone into a living, breathing sound sculpture. Using the natural acoustics of the park and the sculpture’s physical form, SHERMVN captured field recordings like footsteps, wind, breath, and even lawnmowers, alongside tactile sounds from the sculpture itself: taps, scratches, brushes, and echoes that reveal the voice within the material. 

The composition unfolds as a sonic narrative that parallels the sculpture’s design. Just as each stone resembles a chess piece with its own unique identity, each sound evolves as a character—shaped by its texture, resonance, and interaction with the environment. 

By reframing the landscape as an acoustic space, this work encourages visitors to move differently, listen more deeply, and rediscover the park through the act of attention with heightened sensory awareness. 

The Well 

Here We Stand

Meditation with Stacy Sims, ft. Harry T Wilks 

This piece is centered around the beginning of the hiking trail created by Harry T. Wilks, the visionary founder of the Park. Before entering one of his favorite places, hear him talk to us from the past, and learn about his journey to gift this land to us, in this moment. 

A Mindful I Spy

Meditation with Charli Littleton 

‘I Spy’ your surroundings using all five senses wherever you are in the park to help ground and become present in the moment. 

Soundscapes at Pyramid Hill was generously sponsored by:

LWC Incorporated, Ohio Arts Council, and Cincinnati Public Radio