Earth & Sky

About Earth & Sky

Penistone Hill Country Park is one of the wild glories of Bradford District, Yorkshire. With the Earth & Sky immersive geo-located sound walk, you are invited to take a fresh look at this rugged landscape – with new works from composers, sound artists and poets as your guides.

To celebrate Bradford 2025, Opera North has invited Venice Biennale’s artistic director of music, Caterina Barbieri, Kenyan composer Nyokabi Kariũki and Welsh sound artist Gwen Siôn to create new music and sound works. The trio took as their inspiration not only the untamed upland site soaring 1,000 feet above Haworth but also the music of Bradford-born composer Frederick Delius, which is so rooted in the natural world.

The resulting soundscape encompasses everything from hardware synthesizers and siren-song vocals to the sounds of handmade instruments constructed from the offerings of our natural world. These are woven together with field recordings by Sarah Keirle and new poetry written especially for the walk by our Voice of the Hills, Nabeelah Hafeez.

After downloading the app, you’re invited to connect your headphones before setting off into the moorland hills. Leaving from the village parsonage, made famous by the Brontë sisters, the walk begins with classical music composed in the nineteenth century by Bradford-born Frederick Delius and performed by the Orchestra of Opera North, before striding into unknown contemporary sound worlds.

Continue on your way and the sound in your headphones changes according to your precise location in the landscape; with a step to your left, you may encounter off-kilter percussion, and with a step to your right, you may hear poetry in the Bradford dialect. This ever-changing soundscape is triggered by state-of-the-art GPS technology: what you hear through your headphones will be directed by your chosen path – creating a unique experience for every listener.