the recordings for the wires cracked were completed in a frenzied two week period in october of 2012. i had mentioned in discussing a previous albums construction that i prefer to forget how i build any particular electro-acoustic amalgam. this is so that i dont get to precious with them, so that i could refine them further, so that the sounds themselves speak beyond their aggregate parts. with the album being relatively fresh in my mind, i can still recall various components to the wires cracked -- the desolate howl of a metal screen activated by a desert wind, the hissing air compression from the cooling apparatus for a laser at the slac national accelerator laboratory operated by stanford university, and the tremolo rhythms from a thin wire that still get me thinking fondly of günter schickert -- but much of the caustic drone, thrumming reverberation, and tactile grit thoroughly escapes me. that is probably for the best, since these various parts speak to an existential rupturing, the collapse of the self, the aftershocks of dark energy, and a belief in the hope for renewal. (jim haynes)