SFSOUND musicians join the bird ensemble in a Spring Equinox outdoor performance

of WENDY REID'S Ambient Bird-Indian Rock 2026, with BRENDA HUTCHINSON’S Dailybell at

sunset.

Ambient Bird - Indian Rock 2026 is a 44-minute interspecies sonic environment that

invites humans, animals, and nature to come together in a shared experience of sound,

silence, and connection. The ambient landscape and experimental musicians, with

traditional and invented instruments, create a collaborative and inclusive space where

all are welcome to listen, engage and contribute to the evolving soundscape. Among themany species of birds at Indian Rock, there are Bewick's Wrens, Dark-eyed Juncos,

Nuttall's Woodpeckers, Anna's Hummingbirds, California Scrub-Jays, American Crows,

and various raptors.

The structure of this work can be described as a musical process which attempts to

reflect nature’s manner of operations: a spatially notated score of sonic fragments

transcribed from bird-human interactions is interpreted and performed by the musicians

within the ambient environment of Indian Rock. Contextual in nature, the work allows

performers to act according to unpredictable conditions and variables which arise within

the musical continuity. In performance, an attempt is made at a spontaneous unforced

growing of sound and silence in which emphasis is placed on formation rather than pre-

established form, as in the building and shaping of cell-like units in living processes.

This site-specific piece, as with the first incantation, ‘Ambient Bird 433’, pays homage to

JOHN CAGE’S composition 4’33”(1952).

Dailybell: immediately after the performance, at sunset, Brenda Hutchinson leads

everyone in bell-ringing, celebrating the Spring Equinox: created by composer and

sound artist Brenda Hutchinson in 2008, Dailybell is an ongoing aspirational project

based on the premise that something as inarguable as the movement of the Earth can

be used as a point of unity and awareness among groups of people who might

otherwise find it impossible to agree.

About the site: Indian Rock Park was originally the land of the Ohlone people, who

consider their connection to the rocks to be sacred. It remains a place of cultural

significance that people protect and recognize its history. It is the hope of many that one

day it will be returned to its indigenous inhabitants.

There is no formal seating: the audience sits on the stone steps or grass, stands, or wanders.

This performance is included in ‘Ambient Bird-Berkeley’ (2025-26), a project supported

in part by a Civic Arts Grant from the City of Berkeley