The inspirations for this piece are manifold; a mélange concoction of sounds sourced from my personal earworms of the moment. There’s a dash of Kamasi Washington’s Askim and Ryo Fukui’s Early Summer in its harmonic language and general mood. Post-progressive hardcore, with its aggressive shredding over complex time signatures, contributed to the piece’s rhythms and meter. Finally, a decidedly cinematic affect managed to sneak in alongside the jazz and rock influence I intentionally drew from.

The title came to me a ways into working on the piece as a narrative began to form. I began framing the piece through a simple narrative of a person crossing from the land of the living into the land of the dead to retrieve a lost loved one, a la Orpheus and Eurydice. The beginning plods along with audible resignation and sadness, up until some hope is reclaimed when crossing the veil. The quest to reach their loved one is perilous and desperate, but they press on all the same. In the end, and despite their best efforts, our hero is ultimately unsuccessful. The only reward for their impossible endeavor is renewed heartbreak and a plunge back into resignation.