3A SOUNDWALK SERIES: Lithic Fragments by Branic Howard
Powell Butte Nature Park
Aug 15
Lithic Fragments is a composed score for field recordings, piano, cello, contrabass, and percussion to be experienced at Powell Butte Nature Park in East Portland. The field recordings were made at Powell Butte during 2021. You can hear the special ecology and environment in each field recording. These sounds are in conversation with scored instrumental elements.
The grasses and human interaction you hear in the opening is at emergency post 13. This recording was made at about 7:45pm on a warm summer evening. At 8 minutes you begin to hear early morning birds where South Trail meets the edge of the forest near the Spring Water Corridor. For that field recording I laid down in the grass to make my presence less known to the airborne creatures. As you can hear they are crossing from tree to tree, hiding in bushes, calling out to each other.
At about 20 minutes you hear a quiet midday bug song and a walker slowly pass by. Just after the recording, a rare summer precipitation closed in to silence the bug song. Later, very faintly under the music you can hear a field recording of wind moving through the forest close to emergency post 25. Incidentally, I found this spot to be the quietest location in the park—due to the geographic location most or all of the distant road noise is shielded and there is very little fauna roaming the forest, except one brave squirrel who hid as I arrived.
Machine sounds of water pumps, whirling relays, and small motors emerge around 28 minutes. This field recording is maybe the most active and harmonically complex. I met with the maintenance crew from the Portland Water Bureau who shared the underground site where water is pushed, pulled, and pumped from the Bull Run Watershed all the way to these vast underground tanks at Powell Butte. The field recording is backed by a phasing rhythmic pulse on two cymbals. See if you can hear the water? In the closing minutes you hear ice falling from trees.
Quick Facts
Address to Powell Butte Nature Park: 16160 SE Powell Blvd Portland, OR 97236 Get Directions
When you arrive at Powell Butte Nature Park, please choose a location to start your walk allowing for experiences in the woods and among the grasses.
If you have never been to Powell Butte I suggest you begin your walk from the visitor center (access via SE 162nd) and head up Mountain View Trail to Wildhorse Trail to Summit Lane. On this route you will find yourself in the midst of an old orchard and grasslands. You can dip into the forest near the end of the walk.
The 148th street entrance is also a great option, as Elderberry Trail to Elderberry Stairs takes you directly up the edge of the butte through the forest and then you can walk the edge of the grassland forking off down Pipeline Lane.
Keep in mind that wheelchair accessibility is limited to the visitors center and Mountain View Trail (the grasses at the top of this trail are about 4-5 ft tall right now and sound amazing).
If you are familiar with Powell Butte, find a new location to start your walk.
The Soundwalk lasts about 45 minutes. There are no cues or fixed starting or ending points to your walk.
