Visual art and music go hand in hand.

Think of your all-time favorite album …

Did the album artwork pop into your mind’s eye immediately?

I’ve always loved this connection, which is why I’m so thrilled to introduce the next collaborator on ‘Correspondence’, French illustrator Gilles Baudson.

A little after my collaboration with Doug Makofka, I sent out an email asking for opinions about three potential album covers. I was stuck and couldn’t decide. So, I asked for help from the collective wisdom of the group.

I was flooded with responses, apparently you all had some strong opinions, which helped me make a decision.

From that email. Gilles responded and very politely, as is his way, asked if he could submit some artwork.

Now, old me probably would have said no. I was used to working alone and collaboration tends to come with some complications.

However, since working with Doug, I had a new perspective and said ‘sure send over something.’

A short time later, Gilles sent over these two incredible illustrations, which I immediately knew should be the cover for ‘Correspondence’.

At this point, ‘Correspondence’ was just going to be a single, but it soon became more than one song. I wrote ‘Pavane’ based on Gilles’ illustrations and added it to the collection of collaborative works that was growing week by week.

A pavane is a slow dance from Renaissance Europe that has been kept alive as a musical form by many great European composers, including one of my all-time favorites, Maurice Ravel. His ‘Pavane Pour une Infante Défunte’ is constant source of compositional inspiration to me.

I saw the various images in Gilles’ work intermingled in a sort of dance of their own and endeavored to create sounds that slowly weaved them together.

I highly recommend clicking on the illustrations to enlarge them and explore the interplay of their elements. Also, try playing the music at the same time and see what you think.

How do the sounds and images complement each other?

Can you see/hear the dance?

‘Correspondence’ was taking a new multi-dimensional shape. However, one more key contributor was still to join the picture, whose dedication to this project has made it possible for me to share this with you …

To experience the conclusion of ‘Correspondence’ …

… simply click ‘Explore Next Post’

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