I started working on Portmanteau back in 2014 and originally intended to release it then. A portmanteau is an old clamshell suitcase that opens into two equal sides. Lewis Carroll first used the word "portmanteau" to denote any word that combines two other words into one meaning, like "mimsy" as miserable and flimsy. (See Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking Glass for more!) So this project is called Portmanteau because it is equal parts poetry and music: my music, others' poetry, six non-textual pieces.

In 2013-14, I asked several poet friends to send me audio recordings of themselves reading one or two of their own poems. After listening and trying to find the emotional core of each piece, I would write music that felt either like highlighting that essence or entering conversation with it. Then I would combine the recordings into new hybrid constructions. Often I would chop up the original poem recording and load it into my sampler from which I could then essentially play the poem like an instrument, enabling a more musical repetition of particular phrases/lines while retaining the original structure.

Some tech notes: audio quality varies because of how many years this project spanned. Some of these ("Launching", "Winter Stag", and "Snapchat Prayer") were recorded in 2014-15 when I didn't have access to recording equipment--branching from the To Die : To Sleep and Dream Woman EP sessions. These lo-fi tracks were recorded and mixed on an iPhone in the iOS FourTrack app and later loaded into Logic for what polishing was possible to achieve. "Yours Truly, Niobe" was recorded in 2015 with the iOS version of GarageBand. "Clarestene Coyle" was in late 2013 (in the Lunar Affair sessions), and was what compelled me to reach out to other poets for this album-length project. "Mechanisms/Rainstorm" and "Words That Don't Exist in English: Forelsket" were made in early 2020. Also in all cases the initial poem recordings themselves were made on the poets' phones. I think the variety of audio quality ultimately adds unique character to each of these works.

I would like to continue this project and introduce this release as the first in a series. If you would like to have your poetry considered for the next Portmanteau collection, please contact me at monarcadia@gmail.com.