Summers are a glorious time for me. Free from all professional and social obligations I can devote myself entirely to music. This past summer (2009) I was enjoying a particularly productive period when on 3 June I received a rather suspicious postcard. (Click here to view) With no signature or explanation I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Although, I did notice the two bold letters: T and S, my initials. Before long I received another card, equally vague and no message. Earlier that year I was working on collaborative project with soprano Sarah Hersh and poet Rafael Oses when it dawned on me: in addition to being a poet Rafael is also a very talented visual artist. Mystery solved! Throughout the summer and into the autumn Rafael continued to send them and I continued to enjoy them. Eventually there were too many to keep out on my music stand and so I tucked them away into my manuscript notebook. One day, as I was writing out a passage into my notebook my eyes drifted over to the postcards and I began to envision a work that combined Rafael's images with passages of music. As I was composing short fragments to go along with each of the cards I thought of Erik Satie's 'Sports et Divertissements', which "consist of two artistic elements: drawing, music ..these two parts combined-- in a single volume-- form a whole: an album." (from Satie's Preface to the collection). This work has always been a particular favorite of mine and through this video I have tried to honor both Rafael's images and the spirit of Satie's work. Musicians will no doubt detect a parallel with Alban Berg's 'Altenberg' Lieder, which is deliberate, except for the fact that Rafael's 'poetry' is contained within the image itself. Click here to view a sample.