New North Collective’s Circumpolar Soundscape

The New North Collective is an ensemble of Northern Canadian performing artists from Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavik/Nunavut including throat singer/drum dancer Sylvia Cloutier from Nunavut/Nunavik; spoken word artist/bassist Pat Braden and composer/performer Carmen Braden from the NWT; singer/songwriter Diyet (Kluane First Nation), guitarist/songwriter Graeme Peters, trombonist/singer Selena Savage, and percussionist Robert Van Lieshout from the Yukon; multi-instrumentalist Eric Reed from BC; with Jan de Vroede from Greenland and Belgium.

Together, these artists explore their ideas of north – from the land to the people; from the traditional to the contemporary. Their shared music focuses on an in-depth look at being a northern person and a northern artist with the impact of north on the music they are creating using the musical lens of folk, jazz, traditional, experimental, spoken word, and rock. This music and media arts event is a Circumpolar Soundscape that is current, traditional, and thought provoking for diverse audiences, reaching many demographics and musical tastes.

“As we’ve performed across Canada, the universal feeling from audience is that we’ve brought the North alive for them. We live and work in the north, from Burwash Landing in the western Yukon through Whitehorse, Yellowknife, and as far away Nunavik and Nuuk. We connect 3,500 kilometres of tundra and taiga and mountain lands, over river and lake and ocean waters.” – Diyet
 

The traditional territories we live on:

• Diyet yè Robert, Lhù’ààn Mân ku Dań keyi nanńje. 
  Diyet and Robert live on Kluane First Nation lands and territory. 
• Graeme and Selena live on the traditional territories of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and Ta’an Kwäch’än Council in Whitehorse, Yukon.
• Carmen and Pat hail from Somba K’e: /T’satsąot’inę / or Yellowknife in the heart of Chief Drygeese Territory: The traditional land of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. 
• Sylvia sings songs in Inuktitut inspired by the stories of where she is from in Nunavik and Nunavut.
• Eric lives on the unceded traditional territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations in North Vancouver BC
• Jan makes his home in both Nuuk, Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat) and Antwerp, Belgium