elastic dreams by Kevin Gilmore
"elastic dreams" is a series of recordings made late at night using granular synthesis. field recordings were collected during the day for use during these recording sessions. sounds collected include rain, storms, wind chimes, piano, detuned guitar, my children (asking me questions), partner (talking in the kitchen), the dog's collar and paws clicking on the hardwood, my backyard chickens, stones collected at the beach, and vegetation outside my home. accumulatively, these sound objects make up a huge portion of my world as a father. the time needed to make these recordings came during the quietest part of the day...when everyone else was asleep. and i was laying awake in bed.
there are 8 visual artworks that correspond to each track. i collected 8 tiny pebbles from my yard and envisioned them in a similar way as how the sound grains populate in granular synthesis. using gouache and graphite, i employed cage-inspired method of chance operations - each group of colors are a result of dropping the pebbles from my hand onto the paper at arms length. beginning intuitively with my color selection, the colors often morphed on the palette using the gouache that remained from previous choices to determine the next hue. after tracing each of the pebbles in a group, i used the selected color and painted that set of tracings. the group of 8 tiny stones were used 8 times per artwork. 8 complete paintings were made for each of the 8 tracks on this collection. the farthest (the outlier) grain in a color group became the focal point. the other grains were connected using various rulers, some not as straight as others.
the cover of the album contains all 8 visual paintings layered together, digitally.
Tracklist
| 1. | elastic dreams | 1:01 |
| 2. | for john | 5:30 |
| 3. | exteriorwall | 3:58 |
| 4. | pooled | 3:43 |
| 5. | 2nite | 2:42 |
| 6. | landscape | 4:04 |
| 7. | for john, too | 7:08 |
| 8. | elastic dreams, too | 2:52 |
Credits
License
All rights reserved.
Kevin Gilmore is an interdisciplinary artist, working as a painter, experimental sound composer, and educator. He works with sound as a medium, composing experimental soundscapes from field recordings, acousmatic explorations through contact microphones, digital instruments and analogue synthesizers. As an abstract visual artist, the sense of place becomes the subject of his abstract work.