Catalog Number: PM02
Release Date: March 21st, 2019
Formats: Digital, Cassette
Edition 1: 50 SOLD OUT
Edition 1 Reserve Stock: SOLD OUT
Edition 2 (Blue with Gold): SOLD OUT
Buy on Bandcamp Buy on iTunesStream on Spotify
Tyler Gilmore aka BlankFor.ms has crafted “Works for Tape and Piano,” pushing each instrument to its most vulnerable place, the tape itself becoming an instrument, sounding almost as if at the point of a beautiful breakdown. —Create Digital Music
Works for Tape and Piano immerses the listener in a sonic landscape where sustained piano tones bend and flutter as light travels through a prism. The centerpiece of this album's creation is a tape machine, which Tyler Gilmore aka BlankFor.ms uses to capture his world and warp it; sometimes speeding up time, sometimes slowing it down while often painting a warm, analog canvas, letting long forgotten recordings on old cassettes shimmer through to the foreground.
Originally from the Wind River region of Wyoming, a sparsely-populated region where the stars shine much brighter than his new home in Brooklyn, BlankFor.ms began improvising and composing when he was very young, playing piano and using acoustic instruments to attempt to recreate the sounds of synthesizers and other electronic composition tools. As he discovered these tools later on, it helped to unknowingly sculpt his sound and bring the sum of his experiences in new directions.
On this debut album, the primary instrument is a four-track tape machine. “Nearly every sound on the record was recorded through that device, either on a tape loop, overdriven through the mixer, or a combination of the two. Many of the songs are tape loop based. I fell in love with the way tape loops take over the process. One must cede control in many ways to the imperfections of the physical loop. It becomes a collaborator.”
The first song that was created For Tim, set BlankFor.ms onward in the direction that would come to shape the album. This deeply personal song is for his close friend who recently passed away. Other songs like My Hands In The Soil share a warm homage for Ryuichi Sakamoto. The album continues musical exploration into the realms of artists like Amulets, William Basinski, Tim Hecker or Alva Noto.
In between releasing full albums, BlankFor.ms also often releases music on his Instagram page. “Instagram became a wonderful way to interface with other creative people and to learn from them. I've come to see it as a medium. A frame. Not a lesser version offering only a glimpse of some other thing, but rather a place to post something composed for that framework.”
Composed, Produced and Performed by BlankFor.ms AKA Tyler Gilmore
