courage left in a tree
How do our surroundings look from a different vantage point, and what encounters feel different when moving through the world on two wheels?
Chicago-based Zander Raymond takes us on a reflective ride with courage left in a tree, an album inspired by the sonic and physical experience of travelling by bike throughout a metropolitan landscape in winter, yearning for the sensation of an August sun.
The track titles reference sites and geographic points stumbled upon during his daily commutes to and from work, while the sounds heard throughout speak to a deeper personal process for Zander: “I am very sensitive to sound, so I turn to field recorders to capture the unpleasant, and I weave those into compositions in an attempt to understand them, but also as a way to make them beautiful.”
meet zander raymond
Inspired by materials, tools, and images from his local surroundings, Chicago-based Zander Raymond brings his work to life through gentle nudges, observations, and gestures, paying careful attention to the character already embedded in a material. A visual artist as well as a musician, he explores the shifting subjectivity of objects through playful experiments with function, limitation, and chance—always asking, ‘What is possible?’
Listen to the sounds
The cassette is a deconstructed version of the album’s artwork, mirroring his visual art practice in layering found materials. Keyboards, field recordings, and modular synthesizer bring to life sounds found and made, where solid forms and sonic waves co-create in harmony.
- 1 – abbott 1:58
- 2 – asks for a hand 2:38
- 3 – it goes side to side 1:50
- 4 – held on paper 3:29
- 5 – if i look from the side 2:00
- 6 – to point 4:51
- 7 – east toward damen 2:56
- 8 – it came from under the wal 3:25
- 9 – orange shape lower left 2:37
- 10 – sold on tables 1:46
- 11 – underneath the pass 1:41
- 12 – two sided ramp 5:15
A collage of encounters
Zander’s sensibility extends beyond sound into his laminated collages—works that, like his compositions, piece together fragments of daily life into simple yet unexpected forms. Using repurposed materials, discarded scraps, and layered textures, his visual work reshapes the everyday into something worth a second glance.