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This work came to be after seeing a blank monument to soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. The composer writes, "A few days ago I was doing some business in town -- propane bill, electric bill, bank deposit, ash bucket, chocolate -- when I passed a former restaurant turned into a Veterans of Foreign Wars post. I'd never taken notice, until this time. Its granite monument had been extended with another panel. On its grim grey blankness were engraved two words: Iraq Afghanistan. It was chilling. It was like the dogs of war had their mouths open, empty, hungry, salivating, waiting to be fed. I don't know how the VFW works, whether they always anticipate the dead. But there it was, a monument once again to folly and hubris, waiting patiently for the names of the fallen to erase its blankness. I hope it stays blank, but the image wouldn't leave. For all my anger over this war, I hadn't felt this, this whatever-it-is that sucks the life out of its surroundings with an artistic de-animation akin to death itself. The piece I had planned for the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble, itself a lament, simply sputtered to a stop. (You can hear how far I got in this rendering.) It was overwhelmed by a sense of the disjointed but slow instrumental sounds, a kind of nonpop Albert Ayler Ghost, not classical in shape, but endlessly interwoven in simple shapes." Commissioned by the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble for the 2007 We Are All Mozart project. An optional video is available on DVD to accompany the music.
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