I wrote Tactile for cellist Amanda Gookin‘s Forward Music Project, a commissioning project focused on music by women. The piece explores the erotics of everyday life, the variety of types of physical sensation, and the sometimes blurry line between pleasant and unpleasant. Amanda said she wanted to feel vulnerable, so in the piece I call on her to not only play the cello but also sing, speak, whisper and breathe in rhythm; the text she delivers is an unadorned series of described sensations, from "the luxurious softness of his fur" to "the blinding flashbulb shock when a slight motion of your right arm nudges your broken collarbone." In one passage, I also ask her to improvise in a way that feels tense and uncomfortable; in another, I ask her to improvise in a way that feels good under her hands. Both are part of the spectrum of tactile experience.