It seems a long way from big band composition to becoming a tape loop/analogue wiz but that’s the trajectory Brooklyn based musician Tyler Gilmore aka Blank For.ms has journeyed. Schooled in jazz he moved to New York where he hooked up with Conservatory buddy and pianist Jason Moran to work on large ensemble arrangements. But for Gilmore the shift to electronic music and the Blank For.ms soundscape had already begun, a reconstitution underpinned by a spiralling interest in DIY cassette loops and synths.
Now nearly a decade down the line, with a couple of EPs and albums of his electronic/experimental explorations released, Blank For.ms seems settled in his natural domain. Sure, there’s been time for other collaborations with Moran, most notably the spell binding improv album ‘Refract‘ where loops, piano plus Marcus Gilmore’s drums alchemised, but Blank For.ms is now best known for his deep dive into experimental sonics. So news of his next album ‘After The Town Was Swept Away’, Gilmore’s debut for LA’s Leaving Records due 5th September, should tweak the interest of any leftfield listener.
It’s an album that must have been challenging for Blank For.ms to realise having been recorded following two successive seismic events for the composer, the birth of his first child and the passing of his mother. That context inevitably prompted original ideas to be re-framed, the feelings re-articulated to reflect joy, grief and the inexplicable emotions which swirl between them.
It’s such complexity and resonance that preview track ‘Formed By The Slide’ paints so well. The soft comforting pulse, the soothing song of guest vocalist Ella Joy Meir, the chiming melody that loops more intently as the piece revolves. At times the ambience is shaken, the pace stutters, rhythms swipe irritably then shy away but the gentleness seems to prevail until the last resolving note.
All this depth captured in a few musical moments -‘After The Town Was Swept Away’ promises to be indispensable …
Pre-order your copy of ‘After The Town Was Swept Away’ by Blank For.ms from Leaving Records HERE
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