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Ute Pass News Gaeya brings extraordinary voice to Skyspace

The James Turrell Skyspace in Green Mountain Falls is one of a kind. Joining the 85 skyspaces constructed around the world, the GMF Skyspace opened in 2022 during the Green Box Arts Festival. It’s the first to be built on a mountainside, the first in Colorado and one of the few Turrell skyspaces with a retractable roof.

Conceived as a natural extension of the landscape, this skyspace was constructed with all-local materials, including beetle kill pine and local stone.

Green Box Arts intentionally designed the site and approach to James Turrell’s skyspace to bring people closer to nature, to work in collaboration with Turrell to encourage a meditative,

The trail through beautiful conifers to arrive at the skyspace helps to quiet the mind and prepare each person for the experience of a lifetime. It offers beauty followed by beauty followed by beauty.

The roof oculus draws the participant’s sight skyward to contemplate magnificent Colorado skies, its own kind of light show. When the roof closes, an artificial light sequence with combinations of vibrant and subtle colors and forms tickle your sight and imagination.

Gaeya brings her music from Sweden to the James Turrell Skyspace in Green Mountain Falls.

New Yorker critic Calvin Tompkins writes, “His (Turrell’s) work is not about light, or a record of light; it is light — the physical presence of light made manifest in sensory form.”

The addition of curated sound to Turrell’s light space culminates in an intimate, personal sensory experience unlike any other in this acoustically live space.

Green Box Arts artist-in-residence Gaeya offers just such an experience as her voice soars, dips, glides, ululates and permeates every nook and cranny of the space. Gaeya’s voice responds to the changes of color and light, seeming to emanate from the space itself.

Gaeya’s mission is to bring people closer to nature through music, and to take listeners deeply into the healing frequencies of sound. Her message is “We Are Nature.” Her vocables are an intuitive language, beyond words, inspired to bring us closer to our true self.

Her residency with Green Box Arts is motivated by her desire to create new music through responding to nature in the area.

“Having the snow and the heat, the contrast here in the mountains, is something that inspires me.”

Gaeya uses simple instruments in simple ways, such as chimes, bells, a frame drum and shaker, to accompany and accentuate the virtuosity of her voice. She uses sound and vibration, ancient sound technologies, to bring participants into a meditation of inner intent, truth and beauty.

Maeve Morrison, left, and Sage Nicholas walk down the trail after experiencing Gaeya and the Skyspace. “Her voice is really powerful and really inspiring,” Maeve exclaimed. Her mother, Amy Morrison, said, “Never knew the voice is capable of making those types of sounds. Unfathomable.” “Really beautiful. The culmination of the vibration and the light show is very powerful,” said Sage’s mom, Allison Nicholas.

Gaeya hails from Sweden, where she’s been exploring her indigenous Sámi roots. (Her grandfather’s mother was Sámi.) Her musical background has included classical, theater, jazz, country, pop and rock — genres that allowed her to get to know her voice and its diverse abilities and flavors.

In 2013 Gaeya began to explore the “voice within” without genre restrictions, and has developed an intuitive approach to music since. She is influenced by the ancient Sámi cultural tradition of the “joik” or “yoik,” a unique form of vocal expression that reflects the deep connection between the Sámi people and their lands, animals, and spirits. “This voice is something that we all carry inside of ourselves,” Gaeya said.

She will offer two more events at the James Turrell Skyspace at 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Saturday, April 27. Tickets available at greenboxarts.org.

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Marcroft Hall Cleanup Day

10 a.m.-noon Saturday, April 27, at 9105 Chipita Park Road, Cascade.
Come help get Marcroft Hall ready for the first potluck on May 19. Both the inside and the exterior yard will be cleaned up. Please bring tools and gloves. Information: membership chair Elizabeth Wieland, [email protected] or 719-400-9203.

Green Box Arts Festival 2024

July 1-14
Registration opens at 9 a.m. Wednesday, May 15
In its 16th year, Green Box Arts Festival offers an abundance of premier arts exhibits, performances, classes, arts tours, camps, hikes, sound experiences in the Skyspace and conversations exploring the best of contemporary arts. Many events are freely offered. Ticketed events sell out quickly, so be sure to get online to reserve your space. Full schedule available at greenboxarts.org.