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

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 see you but I never guess

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

When I say “I’m standing near the earth,”
I appear in it
A hawk is circling the house
beside my house

I am lifted from the page; June
The poem was lost 
when S’s mom called
The song continued.

I appear in it; law
how we seem to you

Recorded June 15, 2019 in my sublet near West Park in Ann Arbor, MI.

When I Say I am Standing Near the Earth - Demo

Alex Silver is a folk experimentalist in the Portland, Maine area. Most of this material is from my "song diary:" https://alexsilvertown.com

Alex Silver

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