This year’s “Sound for Silents” at the Walker Art Center’s hillside in Minneapolis was meant to pair singer-songwriter Matt Arthur’s music with films curated by director Philip Harder, but the plan changed after Arthur suffered a stroke on June 13.

The original idea was for Arthur, a blind musician with a rich, gravelly voice, to sing with an ensemble, accompanying a selection of avant-garde and experimental films. Now, still recovering, Arthur will perform just one or two songs, while a terrific lineup of musicians step up to the plate singing his songs in his stead.

“It’s been a big deal, but it’s OK,” Arthur told me over the phone when I reached him in Ellendale, the southern Minnesota town where he lives. Recovery has been a slow process. “It isn’t as easy as you’d think,” he said.

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