Late one afternoon, my son and I took a short walk to Prospect Park, Brooklyn, to sit together at Monuments to Motherhood, the elegant looping bronze sculpture by Molly Gochman. At the sculpture, we listened and made a series of recordings of small string and reed instruments. I wanted the ambient sounds of the environment to filter into the recordings so they wouldn’t have the sterile sound of a studio, but rather the warm ambience of the site. I crafted these recordings into a series of loops, mirroring the sculpture. Each of these loops had differing lengths that would overlay each other, cycling asynchronously so the patterns created would never repeat. These were layered with field recordings and Molly’s contact microphone recordings to create constantly shifting waves of harmony and gentle rhythm, never settling into locked phrasing. My goal was to make atmospheric music that would become the space around her piece.

Revisiting the site with Molly later, I realized how well this process reflected her piece. We each had crafted a potentially rigid medium into organic loops that relied on each other for support to create a warm, enveloping whole. I hope this music gives to the listener what Molly’s work gives to the viewer.