This composition was inspired by the poem "In Blackwater Woods" by Mary Oliver:

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars
 
of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,
 
the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders
 
of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is
 
nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned
 
in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side
 
is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world
 
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
 
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it
go,
to let it go.
 
— Mary Oliver

Homecoming (In Blackwater Woods)

This track was inspired by Kaibyō, the supernatural cats of Japanese folklore.

Kaibyō (for Boots)

© Michael Calabris Music (ASCAP), 2025. All rights reserved.

This is an excerpt from "The Obsidian Mask," a Buchla Easel V-realized composition, divided into six sections.

You can check out the entire recording of "The Obsidian Mask" on Bandcamp: https://michaelcalabris.bandcamp.com/album/the-obsidian-mask

The Obsidian Mask

Prelude & Sonata I (from "The Obsidian Mask")

In Zen, ensō (円相) is a circle that is hand-drawn in one uninhibited brushstroke to illustrate the moment when the mind sets the body free to create.

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