The City Mourned an Artist

The City Mourned an Artist

Rome, April 7, 1520Raphael Sanzio died yesterday. Thirty-seven years old, on his birthday, of a fever. Rome has gone into a mourning I have not seen extended to an artist before and do not expect to see again in my lifetime, which is a more complicated statement than...
Ashes of Tomorrow: The Reckoning

Ashes of Tomorrow: The Reckoning

Present Day, May 2026Ashes of Tomorrow is the penultimate movement in the arc, and it is the one that allowed me to do something that the rest of the album does not allow: grieve.The other tracks are built from restraint. The architecture of the album requires the...
The Orchard Sleeps

The Orchard Sleeps

Present Day, May 2026The Orchard Sleeps is the hardest song I have written in a very long time. Harder than Black Sun Rising, which required precision and restraint but not grief. Harder than Children of the Ember, which required finding the genuine warmth underneath...