Numinous The Music of Joseph C. Phillips Jr. |
The Numinosum Blog
With all that's going on in Congress these days, I just needed a little Common Sense:
The more men have to lose, the less willing are they to venture. The rich are in general slaves to fear, and submit to courtly power with the trembling duplicity of a Spaniel. -Thomas Paine, Common Sense Paine Collected Writings. New York: The Library of America, 1955. pg. 42. POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 6:04 PM
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Today the first day of summer also was Make Music New York, where musicians spread out throughout the entire city and burst into songs, jams, and noise. I took part in the New York premiere of Mauricio Kagel's Eine Brise for 111 bicyclists sponsored by Red Light New Music. Cornelia Street was closed down and all 111 bikes (well, really about 30 of us) rode down the street ringing bells, whistling, and making various (prescribed) sounds. It was a lot of fun, although very short (less than a minute). In fact once we got to the end of Cornelia Street, we all turned around and had an impromptu encore performance going back the way we came!
There were a number of video takers so when the video is up I'll post a link to it. But here are a few shots as we were gathering before the performance. POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 7:30 PM On Monday John Turturro screened his film Passione at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) as a fundraiser for the school I teach at P.S. 321 (THANKS JOHN!!!). The film, which he directs, is a heartfelt tribute, a musilogue if you will, through Naples, Italy. John described it at the fundraiser as a sort of "Italian 'Buena Vista Social Club'" and there are some similarities between the two films (GREAT music and personalities). However most people in the States probably have little knowledge of Neapolitan music going in, whereas Cuban music is more widely known.Personally, I knew very little about the music of Naples before seeing the film and must say was quite impressed with the mixed music tendencies inherent in the influences; music from the Middle East, Spain, reggae, Catalan, America, and more all meet in a culture of miscegenation. It was an ear-opening experience and when the film is released in the States on June 22, I would suggest GO-SEE-IT! POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 12:56 AM Just received word from my friend Dave Hagedorn that the St. Olaf College Jazz I, the band he directs at the wonderful Northfield, Minnesota college, just received downbeat magazine's "Best Large Undergraduate Jazz Ensemble" award! If you've read my blog for awhile you'll know that I have a connection with St. Olaf, not as an alum but as a resident with Dave and Jazz I as well as with the St. Olaf Band, in which each visit I was commissioned to write pieces for each ensemble (for jazz band, Seeker in 2005 and an arrangement of Race in 2009; for the St. Olaf band, The Long Now in 2009). The award speaks well to the incredible instruction and to the musicianship Dave, Phil Hey, and Laura Caviani instill in the students, not to mention the quality of instruction in the other teachers at the St. Olaf Department of Music. Each of my visits was a fabulous time and Dave and the students were wonderful. I am extremely pleased to read that they won this highly competitive and well-deserved award and humbled that I was cited in the article as an influence. Congratulations to Dave and the St. Olaf Jazz I!!! POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 8:50 PM sad, upset, & embarassed Obama 'had' 2 release BC, then @baratunde response helps bring some of my feelings into words http://ow.ly/4IqXg) Numinousmusic Joe Phillips of course @TheOnion breaks it down even further "BREAKING: Trump Unable To Produce Certificate Proving He's Not A Festering Pile Of Shit" Numinousmusic Joe Phillips I think these recent tweets of mine sum up my thoughts about Obama releasing his birth certificate today. Baratunde's response, which is embedded below, is worth contemplation for all Americans... POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 9:00 PM Dreams of Wonders Undreamt
"...may your generation see wonders undreamt." -Carl Sagan, The Pale Blue Dot Dreams of Wonders Undreamt is another part of my dance project, To Begin the World Over Again, based on the writings of Thomas Paine. For this new piece, I set some words of Paine from Common Sense ("...the sun never shined on a cause of greater worth") in counterpoint to a passage from John Wintrop's City upon a Hill sermon from 1630 (the famous "we shall be as a City upon a Hill" that Ronald Reagan made famous) and Nicholas Black Elk's On the Battle at Wounded Knee from Black Elk Speaks ("Now that I can see it all as from a lonely hilltop...", describing the terrible massacre in 1890, this last major battle in the "Indian Wars"). Dreams of Wonders Undreamt takes its title from the dedication Carl Sagan wrote to his son at the beginning of his book The Pale Blue Dot. Where he envisions for his son a more global hope of future wonders, I have translated the phrase to a more local level: the wonders and potential that the promise of America presages, and of which, by implication, has not fulfill. This might seem a critique on the state of America, and in many ways it is. However, Dreams of Wonders Undreamt does not come from a place of political polemics, where any critique or questioning is an apostasy. Rather, my composition is a love song to the promise of America, to that unbound potential and ideal that Thomas Paine wrote and spoke about so eloquently and which I believe all Americans would like to see it be even more worthy to. Numinous Monday March 21, 2011 9 PM to 11 PM $10 suggested donation Tea Lounge 837 Union Street Park Slope Take the M, R Train to Union Street Check back as I'll post some more crib notes about the compositions we'll be performing. POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 11:19 AM FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2011
19 “…we must fight for your life as though it were our own—which it is—and render impassable with our bodies the corridor to the gas chamber. For, if they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night.” James Baldwin, from An Open Letter to My Sister, Miss Angela Davis 19 is inspired by two, seemly disparate sources: Arnold Schoenberg's Sechs Kleine Klavierstücke Op. 19 from 1911 and Angela Davis. The initial musical impetus was with the Schoenberg, specifically it was one of my "what if" questions, where I challenge myself with a compositional quandary. In this case, can I make Schoenberg funky? But the emotional timber of 19 is inspired by the activist Angela Davis, specifically her iconic status in Black culture of the 1970s. Particularly I was moved by James Baldwin's An Open Letter to My Sister, Miss Angela Davis from November 19, 1970, which while condemning the arrest of Angela Davis a few months before the letter, also goes on to describe, in biting and incisive commentary, the state of racial dynamics in the United States and paints Davis as a soldier in that on-going struggle for racial and social equality. 19 is one part of a larger, as of now untitled, mixed music composition that will be recorded next year. Numinous Monday March 21, 2011 9 PM to 11 PM $10 suggested donation Tea Lounge 837 Union Street Park Slope Take the M, R Train to Union Street Check back as I'll post some more crib notes about the compositions we'll be performing. POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 9:07 AM Miserere
I first heard J.S. Bach's cantata Ich habe genug BWV 82 in the hauntingly beautiful version sung by mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson on her much praised 2003 Nonesuch recording. The German title, which translates as "I have enough," is a sublime spiritual expression about fulfillment and acceptance of the life waiting beyond the living. I first heard Donny Hathaway's "Someday We'll All Be Free" sung by Aretha Franklin on the end credits of the great Spike Lee movie Malcolm X and later found the original on Hathaway's last studio album, Extensions of a Man. Whereas the words and music of the Bach and Hathaway reflect a faith in salvation in the hereafter, my Miserere does not seek any kind of religious statement or connotations. While most Miserere's in music come as a setting of the 51st (or 50th) Psalm ("Miserere mei, Deus", translated as "Have mercy on me, O God"), I am using miserere in one of its other non-religious meanings: as a vocal lament. In ancient Greek drama and later in operas, the lament was a moment of focused expressive intensity in the overall formal structure of the drama or opera. Taking inspiration from the Bach, my original lyrics open with "I have had enough" and continue to expresses a weary frustration and doubt in the ability to solve or come to terms with the many struggles and problems facing us. Although like the Hathaway song, with its optimism that someday will come, I do convey a muted sense of earthly hope in the face of a seemingly increased hopelessness; and perhaps it is by that hope in hopelessness and doubt, that we will "emerge from all the suffering that still binds [us] to the world." Miserere is one part of a larger, as of now untitled, mixed music composition that will be recorded next year. Numinous Monday March 21, 2011 9 PM to 11 PM $10 suggested donation Tea Lounge 837 Union Street Park Slope Take the M, R Train to Union Street Check back as I'll post some more crib notes about the compositions we'll be performing. POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 11:10 AM Memory of Red Orange Laid Out in Still Waves Memory of Red Orange Laid Out in Still Waves was originally commissioned last year by Dave Douglas and the 2010 Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT). It premiered featuring Lew Soloff and Taylor Ho Bynum as trumpet soloists. For the Numinous concert, I've recast the trumpets as alto saxophones as well as expanded the ensemble from the original version. The title comes from a line in the opening of the sobering book by Edward P. Jones, The Known World which, while a work of fiction, was based upon the true incidents of African-Americans owning slaves during the 19th century. The book's subject, as well as the beautiful Kathelin Gray from the Ornette Coleman/Pat Metheny 1986 album Song X, are refracted and transmuted into an original composition that hopes to express the truism of James Baldwin's words about African-American culture (in An Open Letter to My Sister, Miss Angela Davis from 1970, which actually more directly inspired another composition for the 21st gig): There is always, of course, more to any picture than can speedily be perceived and in all of this—groaning and moaning, watching, calculating, clowning, surviving, and outwitting, some tremendous strength was nevertheless being forged, which is part of our legacy today. Memory of Red Orange Laid Out in Still Waves will also be one movement of a larger, as of now untitled, mixed music composition that will be recorded next year. Numinous Monday March 21, 2011 9 PM to 11 PM $10 suggested donation Tea Lounge 837 Union Street Park Slope Take the M, R Train to Union Street Check back as I'll post some more crib notes about the compositions we'll be performing. POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 11:14 AM This Friday evening, March 18th at 7pm Simone Dinnerstein's Neighborhood Classics concert series returns with Simone playing piano with Grammy winning clarinetist Richard Stoltzman. As always the concert is at P.S. 321 in Brooklyn (180 7th Avenue, between 1st and 2nd Streets in Park Slope). The dynamic duo will be performing two pieces I love Steve Reich’s New York Counterpoint (a work written for Stoltzman) and Johannes Brahms' Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in F minor, Op. 120. The program will be rounded out by a work of J.S. Bach Sonata for Viola da Gamba and Keyboard in D Major.
Tickets are no longer available online, but you are welcome to come by the school in the morning (8:30am to 9:00am) where they can be purchased in the lobby. Neighborhood Classics, started by Simone last year, is a great series of concerts (previous concerts of the new season of the series featuring cellist Maya Beiser in October and harpist Bridget Kibbey in January). In addition to concerts at P.S. 321, the series has expanded to P.S. 142 on the lower East Side and ALL of the proceeds from each concert goes to each school (the musicians donate their time and services) and will help mitigate some of the effects the MAJOR budget cuts will inflict on all schools next school year. I teachkindergarten music and math at P.S. 321 and know firsthand how much the proceeds from the Neighborhood Classics has helped our school, even now. So beyond the great music, you'll be support the kids by coming out to theNeighborhood Classics. POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 9:45 AM Like many people I am thinking of Japan after the devastating earthquake, tsunami, and on-going nuclear danger. I am wishing the best not only for my friends, former students and their families, but for all of the people affected. To Kyoto Ando Hiroshige Station 48: Sakanoshita-juku, Mie PrefectureIn anticipation of the upcoming Numinous concert on March 21st, in the spirit of my Inside Vipassana series, I started a Numinous Crib Notes series to profile the compositions for the show. First up To Kyoto, a composition from our first CD and my homage of sorts to Steve Reich. I wrote the piece back in 2000 after my first trip to Japan, which did include a trip down from Tokyo to Kyoto. Here's my original program note for the piece: Tokaido Road was feudal Japan’s most traveled route. From Edo (old Tokyo) to the ancient capital Kyoto, it was used by nobles and peasants alike. Tokaido Road’s scenic landscapes of distant mountain views, open sea, and quaint towns and villages along the route, inspired Ando Hiroshige’s (1797-1858) famous painting series, Views from the Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido. Today, the scenery is still inspiring, as seen from the Shinkansen (bullet train), which follows the old Tokaido route to Kyoto. Numinous Monday March 21, 2011 9 PM to 11 PM $10 suggested donation Tea Lounge 837 Union Street Park Slope Take the M, R Train to Union Street Check back as I'll post some more crib notes about the compositions we'll be performing. POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 10:14 AM Come help Numinous celebrate J.S. Bach's birthday at the Size Matters Large Ensemble Series at the Tea Lounge in Park Slope, Brooklyn (837 Union Street). It's a new instrumentation and new works, including: one piece partly inspired by papa Bach's great cantata Ich habe genug BWV 82; previews of two compositions from a new, larger multi-movement mixed music work (that will be recorded next year); a new composition as part of my Thomas Paine dance project, To Begin the World Over Again (I won't be dancing though); and a Numinous favorite. Hope you can come out next week, have a drink, some food and listen, feel, think, and know Numinous. Numinous Monday March 21, 2011 9 PM to 11 PM $10 suggested donation Tea Lounge 837 Union Street Park Slope Take the M, R Train to Union Street Ben Kono, Rob Mosher (woodwinds), Amanda Monaco, Sebastian Noelle (guitars), Tom Beckham (vibraphone), Carmen Staaf, Mike Eckroth (keyboards), Jean Rohe, Sara Serpa (voices), Kiku Enomoto, Scott Tixier (violins), Nick Revel, Surai Nesrine Balbeisi (violas), Will Martina (violoncello), Evan Gregor (electric bass), Joseph C. Phillips Jr., (conductor, composer) Check back as I'll post some crib notes about the compositions we'll be performing. POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 12:06 PM If you have kids you might want to come to our 321 Band concert where we have the honor of being the E-Street Band backing children music's Springsteen: the wonderful, Dan Zanes. The show is Saturday February 12th 2pm at P.S. 321 (180 7th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn). Oh wait, the 2pm show sold out in less than a day! Well have no fear, like the Boss, we're adding a second show later that afternoon at 4:30pm, so better get your tickets now! IT WILL SELL OUT! $20 in advance $25 at the door. Tickets at www.ps321.org. Despite PS 321's great reputation among NYC schools, with looming budget cuts, there is no guarantee that we'll be able to maintain and fully fund all of our great programs and teachers (including maybe, gulp...me!). So like the Neighborhood Classic concert series pianist Simone Dinnerstein started at our school, ALL the money earned from the Dan Zanes concerts goes to help minimize the tremendous effects those cuts will have to our school. Please consider coming out, it will be a fun time...and it might help save an afterschool program or a job! POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 8:14 AM Last night on the date for observing Martin Luther King Jr.'s birth, I attended a music festival that seemed to resonate Dr. King's dream of integration: an integration where all music is valid as inspiration ("that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight") and can combine to form something different. Yesterday was the kick-off Marathon to the Ecstatic Music Festival at Merkin Hall and I was there for all 7.5 hours of it! In general I LOVED the Marathon and think the concept of the Festival is just the thing I've always been looking for and interested in: musically and aesthetically. So with Steve Smith doing a nice write-up on the Marathon in the NY Times, I thought in this season of awards and Top Ten Lists instead of a straight run-down of yesterday's performances, I'd give you my real-time Twitter thoughts and then a little commentary which includes some love...and a little pain: Most Fascinating Piece: -Julius Eastman "Stay on It" performed by Ne(x)tworks repeating groove & electronics w/echos of new music godfather Reich, probably a prelude of music to come #ecstaticmusic 17 Jan interesting to hear many of the music currents swirling in 1973, and made more popular by others, come together in an intriguing and unique way.Also nice to have an African-American composer featured (the only one among composers or performers), especially on MLK day--would love to see more of it and other brown faces in the composers, performers and audiences on other new music (non-jazz) concerts (we are out there). Piece(s) I wish I had written: -Judd Greenstein "City Boy" performed by NOW Ensemble -Jefferson Friedman "String Quartet No. 3" performed by Chiara String Quartet Friedman and @juddgreenstein definitely mining the same "new beauty" some of us youngsters are trying out these days #ecstaticmusic 17 Jan both pieces were beautiful and lyrical and intense in different but altogether very satisfying ways: Judd's was rhythmically driving and melodically active, while Jefferson's was more of a explorative emotional journey. Both ensembles seemed truly committed to the music. Group I wish I was a member of: -So Percussion love lrg table full of percussion that So Percussion is standing around, heads bowed, like T-day (or Seder...this is Merkin) #ecstaticmusic banging on cool stuff and looking good doing it...nuff said! Piece(s) that cause the most intense "WTF is this?" moments from me: -Michael Gordon "Industry" performed by Ashley Bathgate -Gabriel Kahane "Neurotic and Lonely" from Craig's List Lieder "Industry" was another well-received piece; w/hammer blows, growing noise & distortion, thought it was "Eruption" #vanhalan #ecstaticmusic 17 Jan best shoes and sock combination award of the evening goes to Gabriel Kahane #ecstaticmusic 17 Jan still trying to process what I heard here... Borderline pretentious moment or (this is certainly cool kid music moment): -Timo Andres performing his piano piece "Everything is an Onion" Timo Andres is playing his piece from an iPad #21stcentury #ecstaticmusic 17 Jan I thought it was cool and probably would have done it too, but it also was a little show-offy...kind of like just having an iPad... Borderline too smart for the crowd (or perhaps, knowing the crowd, just right): -John Mattias/Adrian Corker/Andrew Prior matthias/corker/prior from England is up (violin/singing, piano, laptop with neuro-sampling technology?) #ecstaticmusic 17 Jan brooding moor-ish landscapes and fog enveloped seascapes are perfect images for matthias/corker/prior #ecstaticmusic 17 Jan it was a really Sigur Ros-like slow mood throughout (I do like Sigur Ros though); lyrics were hard to understand (some sound issues on various artists throughout the day); and even though they are from England, seemed a little TOO Brooklyn indie cool for me. But some of the sounds were lovely... Most Inspiring Moment: -Face the Music Quartet performing "Volcano" very exciting and energetic...a crowd pleaser! #ecstaticmusic 17 Jan said this when Face the Music played my piece last year, I wish I had something like the group when I was young #WIN #ecstaticmusic 17 Jan Christine Southworth's "Volcano"-some sound balance issues with electric quartet & piano; kids seem to enjoy playing it #ecstaticmusic 17 Jan Face the Music quartet did a lovely job w/ textural challenges of @missymazzoli's "Death Valley Junction" & they pull it off #ecstaticmusic 17 Jan the new music future looks bright with the youngsters coming up... Worst Moment: -realizing Merkin Hall doesn't allow food in the theatre during this break, advice for @merkinhall & next @ecstaticmusic festival: allow food in theater #hungrybutdontwanttoloseseat #ecstaticmusic 17 Jan a call went out for open seats, seems like there is a line waiting to get in. #hopinggingeraltoidsholdmetodinner #ecstaticmusic 17 Jan understand the rule, bad for those of us people "in it to win" all-day Marathoners. Most Fantabulous, Fun non-musical Moment(s): -Getting Q2 button -Niceness of Ecstatic Music staff to help a brotha out with some chocolate -Kaufman center director recognized me, due to my Face the Music connections, and escorted me to VIP room to increase my blood sugar levels with wine, cheese, and crackers -trying to parse Corey Dargel's lyrics -watching Missy Mazzoli and Lorna Krier of Victoire, with their hand gestures during their final song with Buke & Gass For more on the Festival, you can read my coverage of the Marathon a twww.twitter.com/numinousmusic or just search #ecstasticmusic on Twitter. (photo credit: taken by me before the Merkin police crackdown) POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 11:55 PM LABELS: OPINION, PERFORMANCE REVIEW Saturday Night Live's Worst of Soul Train with Triangle Sally, Bro-botix, Diversity...Loved it!
POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 9:33 AM More fun from my Interlake High School band director archives: a great first place award-winning performance from the January 27, 1995 Finals performance at the Clark College Jazz Festival in Vancouver, Washington. We performed "Technically Speaking" by Mike Pendowski and finished with a spirited version of Louis Prima's "Sing, Sing, Sing." POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 10:21 AM
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2010 During my years teaching high school band and International Baccalaureate music at Interlake High School in Bellevue, Washington (many years ago now), we had some fantastic groups (for example, I've previously discussed our residency with composer Maria Schneider-May 2010). Now that I'm converting some of my old VHS tapes into digital, I'm going through many old videos of all of the groups I taught at Interlake and getting to see again and remember how much talent were in those groups. It is bringing back some great memories for me so I'll be sharing some of those performances with you and you can see and hear for yourself (including some time in 2011, our aforementioned legendary concert with Maria Schneider). First I have three videos from January 30, 1998 in which the Interlake High School Jazz Ensemble won first place in the AA division at the Clark College Jazz Festival in Vancouver, WA. This was a great festival for it featured many of the great high school programs in Washington and Oregon (including the much bejeweled Garfield and Roosevelt High School Jazz Bands, although not in our division since they were AAAA schools owing to their larger populations). We performed two compositions for the preliminary competition during the afternoon ("Wyrgly" by Maria Schneider and "After the Rain" by John Coltrane and arranged by me) and when selected as one of three bands for the evening competition, we performed "Wyrgly" again along with "Fingers" by Thad Jones. So here are the Finals performances, enjoy! (you can view the prelims on my Youtube channel) POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 4:28 PM
With the 2010 Christmas snowmageddon, I've had a little time (when I wasn't shoveling) to get to a few things I've been wanting to do for years. One of those things was to transfer some old VHS tapes into digital files. With help from Santa, who supplied me with a video capture device, these past few days I've been doing the slow slog of converting those tapes and uploading them. It actually has been wonderful to see some of the long ago events/performances/concerts that I participated in. So over the next few months I'll be sharing some of the treasure trove with the world. Back in 2000 I was commissioned by JoLea Maffei and the Maffei Dance Company of NY to compose a new work. The resultant composition, "Flying" was used for the dance Multimatrix, choreographed by JoLea Maffei and performed February 11-12, 2000 at the Theatre of the Riverside Church in New York City. For the Maffei Dance Company's 2002 season, with financial help from the American Music Center's Live Music for Dance grant, Multimatrix was performed with live accompaniment by members of Numinous, with myself conducting. In addition, I was commissioned to write a new composition, "Penumbra." Penumbra and Multimatrix were performed on March 21-23, 2002 at the Merce Cunningham Studios in New York City. So below are the opening night performances of both Penumbra and Multimatrix. POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 3:07 PM
A few weeks ago I posted video of my dance piece, The Distance of the Moon, featuring TAKE Dance and the Pulse ensemble. Now I have the footage from my other dance collaboration this year: "These are the Times that Try Men's Souls". Performed as a works-in-progress on June 3rd and 4th 2010 at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, this work is part of a larger piece, To Begin the World Over Again. Based on the writings of Thomas Paine, this collaboration with choreographer Edisa Weeks and Delirious Dances is partly funded through the American Music Center's Live Music for Dance grant and will premiere in June 2011 at the Irondale Theater. The June 2010 performances featured: Cristal Albornoz, Paul Hamilton, Maxx Passion (dancers); Ben Kono, Steve Lyon (woodwinds); Stephanie Richards (trumpet); Amanda Monaco, Mike Baggetta, (electric guitar); Megan Levin (harp); Deanna Witkowski, Aaron Kotler (keyboards); Charenee Wade, Sara Serpa, Melissa Stylianou (voice); Jared Soldiviero (snare drum); Ana Milosavljevic (violin); Will Martina (violoncello); Shawn Conley (bass); Joseph C. Phillips Jr., conductor POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 8:39 PM |
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Thanks and credit to all the original photos on this website to: David Andrako, Concrete Temple Theatre, Marcy Begian, Mark Elzey, Ed Lefkowicz, Donald Martinez, Kimberly McCollum, Geoff Ogle, Joseph C. Phillips Jr., Daniel Wolf-courtesy of Roulette, Andrew Robertson, Viscena Photography, Jennifer Kang, Carolyn Wolf, Mark Elzey, Karen Wise, Numinosito. The Numinous Changing Same album design artwork by DM Stith. The Numinous The Grey Land album design and artwork by Brock Lefferts. Contact for photo credit and information on specific images.