Joseph Clayton Mills

During his final illness (tuberculosis of the larynx) at the sanatorium in Kierling, Kafka was not supposed to speak, an injunction he obeyed most of the time. He communicated with Dora Dymant, Robert Klopstock, and others by scribbling notes on slips of paper. Usually these notes were mere hints; his friends guessed the rest.”—Max Brod.

Inspired by and incorporating fragmentary notes written by Franz Kafka on his deathbed to communicate with friends andfamily, The Patient draws from the texts of these conversation slips for specific imagery, textures, mood, gestures, and instrumentation. The score — essentially an index of suggestions to guide structured improvisation — was initially performed at Chicago’s Experiemental Sound Studio in the fall of 2012 by Olivia Block (piano/walkie-talkies/objects), Noé Cuéllar (accordion/psalter cassette player/objects), Steven Hess (percussion/cassette player), Joseph Clayton Mills  (electronics/cassette player/objects), and Jason Stein (bass clarinet). Recordings of that performance were subsequently augmented, rearranged, and assembled by Mills into the finished album. Additional material provided by Megan Rodgers and Seonaid Valiant.