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The origin of Music For Painting began as a new creative process for myself for making ambient music. In the winter of 2022 I began to experiment with painting and flexing my creative muscles in a medium I was always curious about but never brave enough to take on. I would spend many winter evenings painting to some of my favourite jazz records like Davis’ “In A Silent Way” and Makaya McCraven’s “Universal Beings E&F Sides”. The subdued energy of “In A Silent Way” would encourage a meditative focus while a track like “Half Steppin’” on Makaya's record would compel my brush into a fury. I wanted to explore this interplay further under the lens of creating music for these purposes. Obviously many artists listen to music while painting but I wasn’t sure how common it was to create music for the purpose of painting. I wanted to discover a way to marry the two disciplines and I thought it would be a an interesting idea to allow my music production skills to train my painting ability if at all possible. So on one side of my small studio I placed a canvas and some paints, and on the other side was all my music gear. I’d start off with creating music (usually a drone or some sort of Wurlitzer loop) and I’d just let it play. I’d swivel around and paint with these sounds surrounding me and while the layer of paint was drying I’d use the visuals of what I just painted to inform the direction of the next element of the track. I’d go back and forth until I was happy with both pieces. Many of these first paintings were quite bad, but using that newly created ambient piece, I’d return to the canvas and start anew. It was a very rewarding and iterative process. The music created for this project is sometimes meditative, other times chaotic and dramatic but I find it inspiring to paint to and I hope listeners find it useful in their own artistic practices. Music and Production by: Jack Quinn Guitar by: Luke Michielsen on Track 4 Pedal Steel Guitar by: Aaron Goldstein on Tracks 1, 2, 7, 8 Artwork by: Erika Marczak Released by Astral Oak Records Thank you to the Toronto Arts Council