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

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

Colective creation. Nacho Muñoz meets La capaza, folklor group from Blanca. Toghether they deconstruct the tradicional music of the region. 

La Capaza x Festival De la Raíz al Noise -Excerpt-

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)

Aldarrax is an experimental music and sound art label based in Blanca, a small oasis in the arid regions of Murcia, in southern Spain. The main objective of the label is to connect people and territories through sound, to build community and to make space for experimental sound practices. Half-made music, new collaborations and unorthodox recording techniques are at the core of the label’s editorial line. 

Occasionally, artists are invited to create specific works, proposing collective improvisation sessions to generate spontaneous music. Field recording, soundscape composition and DIY instruments which incorporate local materials are encouraged. We resonate with peripheral, dissident and strange music. Aldarrax holds music as a ritual and animistic tool that strengthens bonds and works on bodies to create altered states of consciousness in autonomous zones. We are interested in repetitiveness, broken rhythms, trance-inducing sounds and durational practices that search for these other realms beyond the human.

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

New tracks tagged #deconstructed folk