Charles Harding (he/him) is a sound maker and cultural worker currently living on the traditional unceded territory of the Wolastoqiyik, Mi’kmaq and Peskotomuhkati peoples also known as New Brunswick. He recently returned from Tiohti:áke/Mooniyang/Montréal, where he has been living and working since 2017. A dedicated member of his communities, he has been actively involved in music composition and facilitation for well over a decade. Computer music creation is at the centre of his process, whether he’s collaging sounds after patching a spaghetti of modular synth wires or vibing out on beaches with a field recorder to collect the tiny sounds of crackling seaweed. Between 2018-2022 he received formal training in electroacoustic composition from Concordia University and has since been working to create music that brings awareness to nature and human presence with priority on sustainable and conscious artistic practice. To this end he recently released a collection of soundscape pieces called Rain Beast (June 2022, Patient Records), which depicts a sonic collage of field recordings collected between 2018-2021 in New Brunswick and Montréal, QC. These pieces are meant to highlight some of the interspecies relationships and dissonances present in several key human-populated areas that Harding considers home. 

Harding is also a part of an electroacoustic composers collective called Trajectories, currently based in Montréal. In February 2023 the group released their first full-length album Blood & Breath, an hourlong odyssey of dark ambience, synthesis, and noise. For Trajectories, Blood & Breath represents the silver lining that came out of the global pandemic lockdowns of 2020-21 and their aftermath. Collaborating over Zoom and using shared drives, the group engaged with the unique circumstances and states of mind, body and emotion being personally and generally experienced in that historical moment, and the result was this album’s 10 tracks. Source materials were personal and intimate: recordings of apartments and private journeys and spaces, made into communal, holographic fabric when shared and reinterpreted amongst all members. As the pandemic raged on, the context shifted and tilted. So too did the relationship change between artists and their compositions.

In October 2023, Harding, alongside two collaborators from Trajectories, Connor Cook and Malte Leander, embarked on a 3-week sound art residency on the island of Kökar, located in the Åland Archipelago in Finland, a cluster of islands located in the Baltic Sea. Throughout their time at the aptly named Åland Archipelago Guest Artist Residence program they dedicated themselves to engaging with the island, conceiving and documenting sound and video while also actively working to limit their environmental impact and method-based extraction. The completion of this residency resulted in a large collection of audiovisual material that will be synthesized and released publicly throughout late 2023 and into 2024. This work will reflect on the overwhelming quiet of Kökar as well as creative contemplations surrounding environmental sustainability and human impact on wider ecologies.

In late February of 2023, Harding alongside Trajectories member Malte Leander performed an improvised soundscape set at Nuit Blanche à Montrèal. Hosted by Eastern Bloc and WIP, the spectacular event entitled PRISMA attracted hundreds. Following this performance a recorded version of the set was released as a Trajectories live EP/video, similarly titled Prisma. The set was arranged to share varying biomes and sonic memories documented by the 2 composers throughout the past few years. Subtle synth textures are layered throughout the performance to alter the perceptual experience of the field recordings as well as to inspire thoughts of strange prismatic settings in time and space; sonic spaces and temporal stamps resembling the colours formed by refraction of light through a prism.

Harding is also a dedicated member of Fredericton’s chamber-pop group Pallmer. In the summer of 2023 they embarked on a national tour of Canada to promote their upcoming album Swimming. In august they also completed a 1-week collaborative residency with Greville Tapes Music Club. The group was paired with Halifax musician Keeper E. to create 3 new pieces of music, to be released in early 2024.

Alongside his creative practice Harding has a long history of production experience surrounding art and music. Over the past decade he has worked in varying organizational roles across several hundred events throughout eastern Canada. From 2022 to June 2023, he performed roles at an artist-run centre in Montréal called Eastern Bloc, specializing in programming of digital arts, and serving as a creative hub in the historic garment district of Chabanel. He is also the digital marketing/ticket manager for The CAP/Shivering Songs in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and is a board member and long-time contributor to FLOURISH Festival. A recent career highlight was his role as Festival Coordinator for SIGHT+SOUND 2022 presented by Eastern Bloc in Montréal, CA. The 4-night digital arts festival hosted over 30 local/international artists with diverse programming including audiovisual performances, a gallery exhibition/vernissage, as well as several workshops and talks. The festival was recently announced as a finalist for the Conseil des arts de Montréal’s 37th Grand Prix award, celebrating significant cultural contributions to the city.