"[A] dizzying collage of dreamlike impressions … somewhere between avant-garde composition, mysterious artifact, and sci-fi thriller."
—Lindsey Rhoades (The Village Voice)

Behind the Wallpaper is a story about someone undergoing a mysterious transformation. At first their life is mundane, even dreary — but moments of altered perception reveal something sinister flickering in the corners. And then, late one night, they have an inexplicable encounter in a university science park. Soon they find themself changing, in ways that may or may not be visible to others. Like the cycle’s unnamed protagonist, the music slips unnoticed through the cracks in the walls, drawing on indie pop, Weimar cabaret, Elizabethan music and 19th-century Romanticism.

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I wrote Behind the Wallpaper for Spektral Quartet and singer Julia Holter, whose own music has a stylistic fluidity and vulnerability that made her the perfect choice for this dreamy, unsettling story. Many years later, in collaboration with engineer Greg Norman, producer William Brittelle, mixer Zach Hanson, and mastering engineer Ryan Streber, we turned it into a studio album. Enhanced by meticulously placed electronic effects and new backup vocals from Julia, this version is otherworldly in a way that a live performance can only approximate. 

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download score (pdf)

read lyrics (pdf)