Invitations from the Land:
the Zena Highwoods
Premieres Dec 21, 2025
Invitations from the Land: the Zena Highwoods
is a year-long album of environmental seasonal soundscapes and accompanying book of creative-spiritual-ecological meditations, exploring belonging within our local ecology, and sound as a form of sacred relational care and stewardship.
Sounds from the Zena Highwoods
Created in collaboration with the land and in partnership with the Woodstock Land Conservancy, this project features soundscapes from the Israel Wittman Sanctuary, a small, nature preserve in the heart of the Zena Highwoods in Saugerties, NY.
By focusing on less than a square mile of forest, the scope of listening brings awareness to our closest ecological relations. Recorded at the winter solstice, spring equinox, summer solstice, and fall equinox, listeners are able to track the distinct changes in local environment at each significant seasonal shift for an entire year.
Israel Wittman Sanctuary, in the Zena Highwoods, Saugerties, NY
The Reciprocity of Sound
Based on the artist’s familial and Filipinx ancestral practices of tending ecological relations through sound, Invitations from the Land began several months prior to recording, by establishing a relationship with place through a series of listening sessions and sound offerings to the forest.
From this practice of reciprocity, a collaborative process emerged, whereby the artist took cues from the environment for ecological study, which eventually determined the locations and species to field record, paint, and specific listening practices and writings to accompany each recording.
Multi-Modal Connection
Accompanying these soundscapes is a book of creative-spiritual-ecological meditations, listening practices, species identification, paintings, and writings that were created on site at the time of each recording session.
Additionally, each soundscape is paired with a listening practice, intended to be used in conjunction with the recording. These practices along with the writings and paintings invite a multi-modal and accessible exploration of our personal connection to local wilderness.
Care Beyond Creation
In the spirit of continued care, all recordings and materials are created with careful consideration of the spiritual and ecological impact on these lands and in acknowledgement of land sovereignty.
Instead of distributing this project as a CD, it will be available online as a digital download of the album and book.
In addition, a portion of the proceeds for this album will be allocated to Woodstock Land Conservancy and Stop Zena Development, and Black and Indigenous land rematriation efforts for future protection and stewardship of the Zena woods.
Community Connections
this project is created with environmental consulting support from Woodstock Land Conservancy and will premiere on Wave Farm radio. 
Premieres December 21, 2025
About the Artist
Zaneta (they.them) is a queer, multi-Filipinx interdisciplinary artist and nature field recordist based in Ramapo Lenape territory. Their work in sound addresses climate action from the internal, local, and sacred experience. Drawing upon the work of their lola sa tuhód (great-grandmother) as a village hilot healer, Zaneta’s work reimagines our relationship with our local wilderness through the relationality and reciprocity of sound as a form of ecological care.
Weaving local field recordings and environmental studies, sound art, community storytelling, and ancestral Filipinx traditions of tending to ecological relations, Zaneta’s work explores the role of sound in the somatic experience of ecological belonging. Specifically how listening and sounding are essential social practices that not only raise awareness of our close connections to the more-than-humxn world, but cultivate a unique sense of empathy and reciprocity that is foundational to stewardship, and ultimately plays a vital role in environmental futures.
Zaneta’s work has been presented in spaces such as the Brooklyn Museum, Los Angeles Natural History Museum, and at the Climate Imaginarium on Governor’s Island. Their upcoming project, Invitations from the Land: the Zena Highwoods (2025), was created in partnership with the Woodstock Land Conservancy and in collaboration with the Zena Highwoods, and will be premiering on Wave Farm streaming December 2025.
Their past projects Sacred Seasons (2020) and Where Land Meets Sky: Geophonic Transmissions for the Body (2022), were awarded the Brooklyn Arts Council grants. To learn more about Zaneta’s work, visit www.soundartmagic.com, follow them on IG @soundartmagic, or listen to their ecological sound Substack, Moon Pool.
