Invitations from the Land:
The Zena Highwoods
a double-vinyl gatefold album featuring a year of forest soundscapes and wildlife illustrations from the Zena Highwoods in the Eastern Catskills
nature recordings by Zaneta Sykes and wildlife illustrations by Zoe Keller
About the Forest
Home to over 270 species of wildlife, the Zena Highwoods is a vital wildlife corridor that connects thousands of acres of forests in the Eastern Catskills.
This beautiful and peaceful land is home to barred owls, bald eagles, salamanders, black bears, red-shouldered hawks, eastern coyotes, and many more.
The Album
A Year in the Forest
The album features a year of recordings made on the Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, and Autumn Equinox from December 21, 2024 through September 23, 2025.
During this time period, nature illustrator Zoe Keller separately documented over 270 species of flora and fauna in the Zena Highwoods in her project Biodiversity of Zena Woods.
Combining these two projects on this album, allows the listener to experience the full spectrum of biodiversity across the seasons in the Zena Highwoods.
Collaborating with the Land
Inspired by Filipinx practices of singing to land in offering, the artist began with 6 months of singing to the forest June through December 2024 before field recording.
From this practice of reciprocity, a collaborative process emerged, whereby the artist took cues from dreams, channeling, and ecological study to determine the locations and species to record.
Sound Archive for the Future
In this moment, the Zena Highwoods are under critical threat of development. Private developers have bought 624 acres of the land and are attempting to build luxury homes in the middle of this critical environmental area.
With this in mind, the artist gathered stories of the land from local residents and learning from the community about what home sounds like.
Sounds of barred owls, crickets, and cicadas, the spring peepers and the songbirds, these iconic forest sounds were compiled to serve as a sound archive of the forest as it is now, a way for future generations to listen back to the land.
This project was deeply informed by local environmental activism and stewardship through Stop Zena Development and Woodstock Land Conservancy.
The artist is active in ongoing efforts to protect this land and a portion of the album proceeds will be donated to land protection, and Black and Indigenous land initiatives.
Continuing Care
About the Artists
Zaneta is a Filipinx interdisciplinary sound artist, nature recordist, and medium whose work deepens community relationships with local wilderness through the reciprocal and sacred practices of listening and sounding.
Drawing inspiration from their lola sa tuhód (great-grandmother) and her work as a hilot healer in Iloilo, Philippines, Zaneta collaborates with land in multi-modal ways, weaving hyper-local field recordings, environmental studies, and activism, with sound art, storytelling, community art, painting, ritual, percussion, and vocal channeling, to create experiences of deep communion with the more-than-human world.
Their work examines how listening and sounding, as inherently relational and reciprocal experiences, are essential eco-social practices that not only raise awareness of our close connections to non-human kin, but cultivate a unique sense of empathy and interconnectedness 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 featured on WKNY Radio Kingston, and Wave Farm Radio. Their past projects Sacred Seasons (2020) and Where Land Meets Sky: Geophonic Transmissions for the Body (2022), were awarded the Brooklyn Arts Council grants, and they were a 2025 Strange Foundation Artist in Residence. In 2026 their project, How to Befriend a Mountain was awarded the Arts Alive Grant through Arts Westchester.
Zaneta currently serves as the environmental artist-in-residence at Marydell Faith and Life Center at Hook Mountain in Nyack, NY. They also teach field recording, listening, and land communing workshops in the Hudson Valley.
Their upcoming album, Invitations from the Land: the Zena Highwoods, was created in partnership with the Woodstock Land Conservancy and will be premiering at the historic Maverick Concert Hall in Woodstock, September 25, 2026. To follow their work, visit @soundartmagic on Instagram or visit www.soundartmagic.com
A Woodstock, New York native, Zoe Keller's creative upbringing in the rural Catskills shaped her future as an illustrator, artist and amateur naturalist.
As a professional illustrator, Keller's specialized focus on highly realistic nature illustrations has provided her with the opportunity to work with a wide array of clients, including The Nature Conservancy, Penguin Random House UK and the New York Times. Keller's professional illustration practice allows her to collaborate directly with scientists, science-writers and environmental advocates. She finds great joy in translating scientific information into engaging visuals that draw in audiences and spark conversation around complex scientific topics.
Keller's personally driven studio work draws upon months of research, and on-the-ground experiences in wild places. Using graphite and digital media, Keller creates large-scale, meticulously rendered visual narratives that place a special focus on at-risk species and wildlands. Her work highlights the interconnectedness of fragile, vanishing ecosystems, weaving together mysterious life cycles, food webs, and environmental histories. By highlighting the biodiversity at risk in an era of human-driven mass extinction her work aims to inspire reverence for the natural world and action to defend what we have left.
Her drawings have appeared in the National Museum of Wildlife Art, in a public art campaign installed outside of Paris's UNESCO headquarters, and in galleries and private collections around the world.
Keller is currently working on her first children's book as author-illustrator: The forthcoming title, to be published by Storey Publishing, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, will explore wildlife in the National Parks. Zoe’s work can be found at www.zoekeller.com
Creative Contributors
Environmental Consulting by Miranda Javid and the Woodstock Land Conservancy
Co-Produced and Mixed by Chris Dingman
Mastered by Sam Stauff
Album Design by Benedict Kupstas
Live Premiere
Sept 25, 2026
Join us Friday September 25, 2026 at the historic Maverick Concert Hall for the live premiere performance of this project, Celebration of Zena.
Presented by the Woodstock Land Conservancy, the evening will include a panel discussion on the power of art and community science in local stewardship, followed by an eco-ritual performance for the forest.
Albums and posters will be available for purchase and signing.
This is a free RSVP event.
