Music Maker, Sound Artist, Cultural Worker
Charles Harding is a sound artist and cultural worker based in New Brunswick. His work grows out of a practice of deep listening and a desire to build empathy toward natural spaces and more-than-human interconnections. Trained in Electroacoustic Studies at Concordia University, Harding often works with field recordings and environmental sound as a way of mapping memory and place. His projects frequently take him into rural and remote settings, where listening becomes a way of building connection to landscapes and communities he might not otherwise encounter.
His solo releases include Rain Beast (Patient Records, 2022), which layered recordings from Fredericton and Montréal into collages that examined how urban environments both echo and disrupt the natural world, and Hellsö (Patient Records, 2024), created during a residency on the Finnish island of Kökar. Built from pipe-organ improvisations and field recordings, Hellsö reflects on specific island sites and themes of vulnerability and climate. His work on Hellsö and a 2024 collaborative album Quiet on Kökar was featured in Musicworks Magazine (Issue 148, 2024). His ongoing project Hum began during an eight-month residency at Fredericton’s Charlotte Street Arts Centre and has since expanded into multichannel and improvisatory performances, debuting at RE:FLUX 20 (2025) and later presented at Schhh Vardagsrummet in Sweden (2025), suddenlyListen in Halifax (2026), and Piu Music & Sound in Fredericton (2026).
Harding participates in several ongoing collaborative projects that span many geographic locations and imaginary plains. With Peter Thomas, he co-created Masque - Observances, Meditations (Saint John Arts Centre, 2025). As a founding member of Trajectories Collective, he has contributed to compositional works Blood & Breath (2023), Quiet on Kökar (2024), and Ecomorphia (2025) and has participated in residencies and performances across Canada and Scandinavia, at institutions such as Sound Art Lab (2024), Calgary Art Commons (2025), and Malmofestivalen (2026). He also performs with Pallmer, touring nationally and internationally, with highlights including performances at Pop Montréal (2024), Contact East (2024), Hamburg’s Reeperbahn Festival (2024), and opening for Daniel Lanois at Harvest Music Festival (2023).
As a cultural worker, Harding has supported many festivals and artist-run initiatives across Eastern Canada. He coordinated the 2022 edition of Eastern Bloc’s SIGHT+SOUND festival in Montréal, which was nominated for the Conseil des arts de Montréal’s Grand Prix. In Fredericton, he helps to coordinate Shivering Songs Festival, working to sustain a hub for songwriters, storytellers, and community members in the depths of winter. As of September 2026, he has taken on the role of Executive Director at Third Space Gallery in Saint John, New Brunswick, and will point his focus towards delivering the organization’s annual programming and THIRD SHIFT festival, a wonderful offering of public art and performance within a creatively curious and supportive community.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I’m a sound artist and composer interested in how listening can shape empathy toward place, community, and the more-than-human world. My work often begins with field recordings and electroacoustic composition, using sound as both material and a way of paying attention. I’m drawn to thinking about how environment, memory, and sound overlap, whether it’s the resonance of an old building, the imprint of a remote landscape, or voices and perspectives that might otherwise be missed. Collaboration is central to my practice, opening up approaches I might not reach alone and bringing sound into dialogue with other forms and methods. Through these processes I try to create immersive auditory environments that encourage reflection, ecological awareness, and a deeper sense of connection to the fragile relationships that shape our interconnected lives.