“I am starting this thing with the hopes of breaking even, but I think there will be intangible benefits even if that fails.” — Atrocious Gnosis

When THE ONLY DIGNITY IS OBLIVION was released in 2017, my thought was that, for many reasons, it would be the last document of my work to be issued for some time. And while I felt it necessary to have a published document of extensive solo work at this point in my life, I was regretful that more recent ensemble work did not have an outlet; not only because of the extremely satisfying nature of how it has been evolving, but also because my ongoing interfacing with certain valued colleagues has not been well represented (if at all) on disk. So, when I was approached by a new label interested in producing a CD of my work, I was delighted. Along with long-standing collaborator Charles Gillett, APOPHENIA features my first published collaborations with Joseph Damman and Sam Wildenauer, and, additionally, a deeper examination into my interfacings with Elaine Evans, Daniel Furuta, and Benjamin J Mansavage Klein, who had previously only been chronicled with me in the context of reformARTwest (THE EDGAR ALLAN POE SUITE and FOR SEPP). Unfortunately, I have yet to be documented with longtime colleague Bryce Beverlin II. In addition to our nearly having a CD published of our first encounter — the producer having suddenly decided that making CDs was somehow showing obsequious deference to “the man” [?!] — Bryce was initially scheduled to participate in the reformARTwest concerts which resulted in the aforementioned documents, as well as being invited to make the quartet with Daniel, Sam and Ben on APOPHENIA a quintet. In both cases prior commitments prevented his participation. As a bit of intentional irony, the artwork for the cover of APOPHENIA was originally to have been the cover for our duo CD.