Alex Silver
@halfvivid.bsky.social
Folk music experimentalist and French teacher. Portland, Maine area. https://halfvividsongs.com https://alexsilver.bandcamp.com/
“I’ve been crossing over and working in Gibraltar all my life with my identity card,” the home care worker said. “I know you’ll be able to cross without it, but it’s just what I’m used to.” apnews.com/article/spai...
Gibraltar ushers in a new era as British territory's border fence with Spain is removed
The fence separating Gibraltar from Spain has been dismantled to ease travel for thousands who cross daily.
apnews.com
Anderson told the story of learning these songs in a fantastic show at @spacegallery.bsky.social last month. I've been going through this album a lot lately, along with her improv'd album with Jim White, 'The Quickening'.
Jennifer Kelly@jenpkelly.bsky.social · last mo.“Marisa Anderson focuses on a batch of traditional music from the Middle East and Asia collected by Smith that is now housed, along with the rest of his archives, at the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa.” writes Jim Marks. dustedmagazine.tumblr.com/post/8210398... @thrilljoyco.bsky.social
The Bollard Bulletin is such a useful, engaging resource for events in Portland (Maine). Example: I recently posted about a Todd Field talk after Kiarostami's Taste of Cherry. That was amazing and the bulletin's how I found out. #portlandmaine #arts #music substack.com/home/post/p-...
The Bollard Bulletin for July 1, 2026
Fearless theater, good vibes, indie folk & a beach read
substack.com
Right now I have no subscription music services. Everything I want to hear is free on @bandcamp.com or @subvert.fm. And if I just want to find something, it's somewhere online always. All my subscription money now goes to paying artists directly.
The Taste of Cherry is probably my favorite film. I watch parts of it often, just to steep in its feeling. Though the theme is sad, I find that its beauty realigns me. Todd Field is there to discuss it in person! www.portlandmuseum.org/event/pma-fi...
PMA Films: "Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair": Taste of Cherry (1997) (with filmmaker Todd Field)
Directed by Abbas Kiarostami. 99 minutes. Not Rated. In Persian with English subtitles. Screens as part of “Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair,” a week-long festival presented in partnership with the Ameri...
portlandmuseum.org
As a member of @subvert.fm and an Aquarium Drunkard reader, I was so excited to see that @jasonpwoodbury.bsky.social spoke on KJZZ radio about new listening models, including Subvert. And that the Night Bird Singing Quartet stuff is on the platform! www.kjzz.org/the-show/202...
Portland, Maine tonight at @spacegallery.bsky.social! I think this should be educational—I’ve never heard her but I’ve certainly heard her collaborators plenty. space538.org/event/marisa...
Marisa Anderson – SPACE
Marisa Anderson returns to SPACE with her border-transcending sound, fusing folk, blues, country, and jazz traditions with elements of minimalism, electronic music, 20th century classical…
space538.org
Off to see this—on film—with a friend tonight at @kinonikmaine.bsky.social in Portland, ME. Thoughts? www.criterionchannel.com/woman-in-the...
Woman in the Dunes - The Criterion Channel
Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara • 1964 • Japan Starring Eiji Okada, Kyoko Kishida One of the 1960s’ great international art-house sensations, WOMAN IN THE DUNES (SUNA NO ONNA) was for many the grand ...
criterionchannel.com
Gratitude to Jeremy Shatan at @anearful.bsky.social: "This uniquely fragmented art-folk epic came over the transom ... As he plays angular acoustic guitar, his halting attempts to 'articulate my perspective' are strangely moving." Track is here: www.subvert.fm/alex-silver/...
AnEarful@anearful.bsky.social · 2mo agoA great rock debut from Beck Zegans gives us this week’s A Song For Friday. Also: The Devil Said Jump, @halfvivid.bsky.social, Levitation Room, Ekmeles, Futterman/Parker, Arthur King, Joshua Mastel & Alec Goldfarb, Tegh & Adel Poursamadi, Visible Cloaks anearful.substack.com/p/a-song-for...
I love how things we make become deeper and more beautiful through others’ minds
Alex Sitze@insitze.com · 2mo agoCool track! It’s like pruning back a tangle of the imagination to illustrate its inherent porosity…or something haha.
“Let Me Be A Friend For Lost Time” is out in full today. Thank you to the wonderful people who made its shape. www.subvert.fm/alex-silver/...
Artist-members, label-members, and supporter-members are feeling really proud and excited today. We’d love to have you 🌐 Current favs: thehxngedman, full catholic, Phillip Golub, Hour, Oh Lonesome Ana
Subvert@subvert.fm · 3mo agoWe’re live. Two years ago, we released a plan. Today, our collectively owned music platform is open. Explore. Support artists directly. Join the co-op. It’s only the beginning. Sincerely Ours, Subvert
A significant update. "This is a truly historic moment, not just for our local scene, but for the broader independent music community across the country," said Peter McLaughlin, an organizer at Maine Music Alliance. www.mainepublic.org/arts-and-cul...
Portland Council approves zoning changes that squeeze out proposed Live Nation venue
Opponents of the 3,330 person music venue say Portland is the first in the nation to successfully block a Live Nation project. The Portland vote comes in the wake of a federal jury ruling that Live Na...
mainepublic.org
Thank you @music.tyenewton.com! I used to dream of renting a room for some songs. Each voice would have its own speaker, and people could rearrange, even roll, the sounds around as they wished. So this impression makes me smile.
Tye Newton Music@music.tyenewton.com · 3mo ago@halfvivid.bsky.social (my fellow local in the @subvert.fm community) is making experimental folk music that feels to me like the whimsical score to an immersive-experience art installation. This one in collaboration with other inventive music artists, I look forward to hearing the full work in May!
New song out May 22nd only at the very-soon-public @subvert.fm! Featuring percussion by Christy Armstrong and an odd bassoon by Tolly Kaiser. I was lucky to get a mix that brings out the “reality and unreality” from the wonderful Don Cento. May sight bloom alexsilver.bandcamp.com/track/let-me...
Let Me Be A Friend For Lost Time - Preview, by Alex Silver
track by Alex Silver
alexsilver.bandcamp.com
I contributed to these long discussions. Impressive how well Iz and Hannah synthesized it all.
Subvert@subvert.fm · 4mo agoAfter nearly a year, with 68 members leading 352 forum discussions, Subvert has published its AI policy: - No AI-generated music - No AI-generated visual art - No AI training on your work This policy was built by Subvert’s membership. Read the full policy at subvert.fm/ai-policy
Love this preview of “Let Me Be A Friend For Lost Time” with guitar, vocals, and arrangement by Alex Silver @halfvivid.bsky.social !! Check it out alexsilver.bandcamp.com/track/let-me...
Let Me Be A Friend For Lost Time - Preview, by Alex Silver
track by Alex Silver
alexsilver.bandcamp.com
Amazing resource in Maine but I haven’t gone yet. Film archives and screenings of some special stuff. Seriously regret missing The Shop on Main Street two weeks after a trip to Prague. How unlikely to have that film living in my town.
Kinonik@kinonikmaine.bsky.social · 4mo ago📽️ It's almost April, and you know what that means: Kinonik's April, May and June 2026 schedule is here! We've got something coming up for most everyone in the next 3 months. Oh, and happy spring!
Lovely new song from Maggie Hopp (Raw Honey) with some help from Fred Thomas. I briefly played guitar for this band! Read a bit about it at Start-Track too: start-track.com/single-raw-h... raw-honey.bandcamp.com/track/the-key
The Key, by Raw Honey
track by Raw Honey
raw-honey.bandcamp.com
This is what art writing is for. When I take the time with this album, I will perceive more.
Recliner Notes@reclinernotes.bsky.social · 5mo agoAfter many years of thinking about Bill Callahan's songs, I finally got the opportunity to interview him for @aquariumdrunkard.com to accompany the release of his new album My Days of 58. His responses to my questions were hilarious, honest, and revealing aquariumdrunkard.com/2026/02/25/b...
I haven’t heard this one yet, but @goldfishbloom.bsky.social’s Breaking and Mending is beautiful and effortlessly patient. Her relationship to singing reminds me of when I’ve woken from a nap and it feels nourishing to simply be somewhere in space. That one’s also at @orindal.bsky.social
BigTakeoverMag@bigtakeover.com · 5mo agoLisa/Liza - Ocean Path (Orindal Records) #Music #MusicSky #MusicReviews #IndieMusic
“Lawmakers should welcome new arrivals in a state that desperately needs to expand its labor force and overall population.”
Maine Center for Economic Policy@mecep.bsky.social · 5mo agoICE's "Operation Catch of the Day" cost Mainers, businesses, and our economy millions of dollars. #mepolitics www.mecep.org/blog/immigra...
So sick that The Modern Folk and John Swanke are on @subvert.fm. I just discovered their duets poking around today (as a member). It made me excited for all these communities to meet. Check out Swanke's Rain Country, btw! Lovely.
To win this beautiful stuff would bring me Oprah-esque disbelief, @myddling.bsky.social. The best song of all time is Cinquième Gnossiène by Erik Satie—his songs’ qualities are acutely understood by @jeremydenk.bsky.social in NYRB—but do kids agree?! I do also like The Loco-Motion by Kylie Minogue.
Worried Songs@worriedsongsmusic.bsky.social · 5mo ago
Only recently learning about Shane Parish. His albums Undertaker Please Drive Slow and Repertoire take interpretation to a fascinating place. I don't know if he pulls out an essence as much as retells things in a clarified voice—the magic is in the playing rather than the intoxication of "song."
Shane Parish@shaneparish.bsky.social · 6mo agoFull page review of Autechre Guitar in the new WIRE: “Autechre Guitar is elegant and crystalline, a set of fascinating miniatures composed of unexpected links and gaps. It's as confounding and crafted as an Escher staircase.” -Derek Walmsley
A very nice mixtape from @klofmag.com from November. I believe its editor Alex Gallacher does these? Learned about Scissor Tail Records, also Max García Conover—who is apparently from Maine and recording with Haley Heynderickx. Mixtape format +1! No. 71 looks good. klofmag.com/2025/11/mixt...
Mixtape: KLOF No. 62 (Folk, Alternative, Experimental)
Our latest KLOF Mixtape features a selection of folk, ambient, electronic, field recordings and experimental music, including Keaton Henson, Hen Ogledd, Weston Olencki, Joe Westerlund, and more.
klofmag.com
It's hard to imagine being so patient with the air you breathe. Eric Hehr gives great context to this album, and how it fit into Ammons' life. But also close feeling for the role of tone, which I just sit there and relish so much.
Aquarium Drunkard@aquariumdrunkard.com · 8mo agoGene Ammons :: Nice an’ Cool (1961) aquariumdrunkard.com/2025/12/16/g... Midnite jazz. Nice ‘an Cool is nothing if not a “mood album,” the overall unity of the quartet eclipsing any one section of the arrangement.
@newfeelingcoop.bsky.social w/ great points on precarity and gig platforms. "But for things to change, we have to imagine more than hermit crabbing from one platform to the next: we have to resist the ways our work is becoming individualized in the first place." www.newfeeling.ca/dont-start-a...
Don't Start Another Substack
Michael Rancic writes about how platforms like Substack push writers toward individualized survival strategies over solidarity.
newfeeling.ca
Listened to this one quite a few times now, it's great. "...strumming and plucking, tapping until the shape of a song emerges" and "...how organic and conducive to day-dreaming the music is." I think they're really really good at pulling meandering sound into a solid, locomotive body.
Snappstare@snappstare.bsky.social · 8mo agoThe New Eves emerged as a favorite avant-garde act of 2025. Here's my review of their debut album, The New Eve Is Rising @post-trash.bsky.social #musicsky #post-trash post-trash.com/news/2025/12...
