Offerings

This is an apocalyptic record. Observing in 2016 both the gradual obliteration of the collective attention span by communication technologies and also the resurrection of “America First”-style nationalist populism, I grew concerned to the point of neurosis that we (the American we, the human we) were on a collision course with the abyss. This fear combined with my obsession with memory resulted in the darkest, densest typhoon record so far.

Although global cataclysm by definition affects us all, it is always experienced individually. In this spirit, we made a concept record about two parallel declines: one man’s gradual memory loss mirrored in the disintegration of social structures.

Without our memories - specific moments that uniquely make us who we are, both separating and connecting us to others - we may find ourselves in an atmosphere of claustrophobic confusion, left to differentiate ourselves through sheer will and animus. I call it the problem of irreconcilable similarity. Twitter is a pretty good example of what I mean.

The song cycle is broken into three movements with an epilogue that offers, I think, a small measure of hope. No matter how bad it gets, every one of us can remember at least one time when we were good. If we can remember it, we can bring it back.

The whole band is here, though we traded in the chamber arrangements for sludgy, noisy rock music. It suited the mood better.

If this record felt inappropriately bleak in 2018, try giving it another spin in 2021.