Allen Moore

Allen Moore is a visual and sound artist from Robbins, Illinois, near Chicago’s South Side, whose work converses with the signifiers of African-American culture. At the heart of his practice is graphite, which he often uses in his drawings, paintings, and sculptures. Working with this material in his visual work led him to hand casting records with graphite, creating warped mirrors of old soul records. These graphite records served as the foundation for sound art pieces and live performances with Moore using up to four turntables to create collages of hypnotic textures and rhythms that resonate like hymns of fractured nostalgia.

For Lived a deviL, his second album, Moore expanded his palette to include records cast from graphite and okra leaves, synthesizers, Fender Rhodes, and samples that narrate tragedies of famous and lesser-known Black historical figures. The resulting body of fully formed songs, hazy interludes, and improvised loops and drones capture an artist navigating the distance between joy and heartbreak, structure and formlessness, and finding an inner peace in the tumult of history.