Recorded at home in Portland, Maine early 2021.

It makes no difference
if it’s spring
‘cause no one gonna share it
with my eye now

but if I know one thing
it’s that I gotta see through
my old thing
my old thing

You can shape (shake) me
you can clay (lay) me to the hay
it’ll never really matter what I say
someone’s gonna know (love) me anyway

*

Old Thing - Demo

This is an "essai," or an attempt, to use Cézanne's words. It's part of an ongoing journal of my artistic practice where I reflect on aesthetic choices, share progress, and invite you into my world as I'm working things out. 

Perhaps it will become something durable someday. For now, take it as ephemera and interact spontaneously. See more on this at https://alexsilvertown.com.

Essai: I gripped it under my sweat

Title track from Dream Without Detail (2012-2020).

The album's songs deal with alienation and longing for the world - physical, spiritual, psychic. This track was a longing for a person and the possible world they implied. Stream the full album through the links at https://alexsilvertown.com/links/

First released March 20, 2017

Drums, Guitar - Connor Dodson
Bass - Andrew Frame
Percussion, Bass - Keith Kinnear
Steel - Graham Parsons
Keys - Andy Catlin
Guitars- Alex Silver

Produced by Chris Bathgate and Keith Kinnear
Engineered, mixed, and mastered by Keith Kinnear

Recorded in Pinckney, MI at the "Lake Haus" and Ann Arbor, MI at Backseat Productions, 2012.

© 2012 Alex Silver

Dream Without Detail (Single)

This is an "essai," or an attempt, to use Cézanne's words. It's part of an ongoing journal of my artistic practice where I reflect on aesthetic choices, share progress, and invite you into my world as I'm working things out.

Did you see the big cloud raising its head?
Giving a warning . . . to everyone trying hard.

Perhaps it will become something durable someday. For now, take it as ephemera and interact spontaneously. See more on this at alexsilvertown.com.

Essai: Big cloud raising its head

Single from Planet Made of Diamonds Twice the Size of Earth!  (2013-2024).

The album's songs deal with the joys and pitfalls of an expanding consciousness. Stream the full album through the links at alexsilvertown.com/links/

First released June 26, 2018

Guitar, Drum Machine, Synths, Voice - Alex Silver
Voice - Sarah Hopp

Produced by Alex Silver and Sarah Hopp
Engineered, mixed, and mastered by Alex Silver

Recorded in Olympia, Washington's west side Autumn 2012-Spring 2013.

© 2018 Alex Silver

Long Stretch of Fog (Single)

This is an "essai," or an attempt, to use Cézanne's words. It's part of an ongoing journal of my artistic practice where I reflect on aesthetic choices, share progress, and invite you into my world as I'm working things out.

Essai: Why don't I know what to look through

Continuing to share "essais," a term borrowed from Merleau-Ponty's writing on Cézanne in Sense and Non-Sense, one of my favorite books on perception. Look more deeply at this idea on alexsilvertown.com. Thanks for your spontaneous and thoughtful spirit.

Essai: With no horizon, no potential . . .

This is a new version of my most recent "essai," or attempt, a term borrowed from Paul Cézanne. So far, the rate has been about one a week in 2025. But this is the same set of lyrics as before—the words are improvised only in presentation. See the playlist called "Essais 2025: Most recent to earliest" for my progress since January.

Essai: With no horizon, no potential . . . Take 2

Song from March 5, 2025 by experimental folk musician Alex Silver near Portland, Maine. I may begin to use the term "song" for some of its older connotations. 

Song: Long Legs March 5 25

I stayed for a month or two at a cottage on Lake Michigan in 2019. I'd just moved from New Mexico and was hoping to go to France and teach. I'm grateful for this time and the generosity of Tom, who has had the cottage in his family a long time. Pretty much made of concrete blocks, it was a refreshing place in the spring that I turned 30. Somewhat lonely, somewhat stimulated, I recorded a lot, compiled a lot, released a lot, and had a real opportunity to go deep into the less-effable zones. This is from Five Collages, available on Bandcamp here:

https://alexsilver.bandcamp.com/album/five-collages-2019

In retrospect: West Olive, Michigan, Collage 3 (May 2019)

Continuing to share "essais," a term borrowed from Merleau-Ponty's writing on Cézanne in Sense and Non-Sense, one of my favorite books on perception. Look more deeply at this idea/my ideas at http://alexsilvertown.com. Thanks for your spontaneous and thoughtful spirit, world.

When every dream / arises like a problem /
clear and wet / then drips away

“Give me an example / When did they every crystallize?” / I ask
one dark afternoon / from the rubber of / my sad clown mask

I see you, I see you / and I repeat it /
for the pleasure / of knowing

I see you, I see you /
when I’m not thinking straight.

Essai: I see you when I'm not thinking straight . . .

This is an excerpt from a longer arrangement of words. It's a meditation on the recurring overwhelm of living in the Information Age. Rough mix.

Staring at a tree without looking

Song Diary entry from May 31st. See my critique here: https://alexsilvertown.com/2025/06/01/song-diary-when-every-dream-arises-like-a-problem/

When every dream arises like a problem, 5.31.25

This indie folk song was a private track for my newsletter subscribers, recorded at the family cabin on a Tascam 4-track in late 2019.

LYRICS

The shadow is a blot
of pelargonium
which is ink
described an apartment.

"Please don't disturb 
the leaves
violently."

William Williams
made me say it:
"Yellow's not a color.
It's a blue piece of paper."

A builder broke a chair
over a table
while stripping out
the second level.
It was very musical
when night 
fell on the pile.

"Please don't disturb
the leaves."

This smudge
of a petal
in a crown
of a statue
polished in 
the creek.

"Please don't disturb
the leaves."

The shadow is a blot
described an apartment.

ARTIST BIO

Alex Silver is a contemporary and experimental folk artist making new work in the airy environs of Scarborough Marsh, Maine. See new releases and notes on practice at: https://alexsilvertown.com

Pelargonium - Demo

Freestanding songs, pretty internet-hidden.

Marsh Diary

Popular tracks