Incantation (2008)

This song was inspired by the idea of loss. In 2008, my mother-in-law needed a kidney. She was scheduled for a transplant, but less than a day the surgery they had to cancel the operation. Finding a kidney can be a challenging process. The challenge was amplified due to the antibodies a female body produces after each birth.

Around the time of this composition, I was reading a lot of Federico Garcia Lorca. His poem, by the same name, evoked a similar emotion for me when relating to my mother-in-law. In some ways, it gave me comfort and relief, but it also elicited solace, while trying to understand what her loss would mean. This song is reaction to all of the emotions I was trying to process and understand.

Fortunately, a year later, her daughter, my wife, Tiffany Du Mouchelle, would be able to donate her kidney to her mother. Below is a mini-documentary my wife and I did about the experience, while DMA students, a few years after the experience. If your interested in knowing more about the our process of the kidney donation, you can watch the video below.