During two winters of Covid lock-down, I looked out a window onto the January snow and ice and wondered what it would be like when we all emerged, a little like the spring thaw, and I started working on this piece. At first it was just atmosphere, then it started to feel rhythmic, a little inevitable, then rather implacable, as spring can be. There were cracks in the ice, long slow near-silences, some trickles and tweets of birds, animals scurrying. It felt like coming up for a big breath of air. Anyone who knows a springtime Midwestern thunder storm will recognize that too, along with the calm that follows.
Russell Scott Valentino 