With started as a realization: that "with" is the basic word, the basic element, that allows anything to exist. It is not the I, the You, or the It that exists by themselves, but the space in between that binds them together and allows them to exist. Everything is relational; everything is with.

I wanted to make an album of love songs to God, who I have been coming into deeper relation and intention with. And ultimately, to me, God is "you": you, a person; you, me; you, the land; you, the world; you, everything; you, any "you" you want it to be. So all these songs are written to and with a You, and I am with that You in... In a Mirror, In Your Eyes, In the Quiet Nights. It is as if With is what begins us, You is what makes me I, and In is what holds our interaction.

These are winding, lyrical, half-dream half-awake, emotional, political, flowery, spiraling songs that I wrote during my time in Jerusalem, in Israel-Palestine, in deep relationship with land, community, individuals, and self. I hope you enter inside my experience, and I hope you enter inside your own experience - who is your You, what is your With, where is your In?

This music is in collaboration with my dear friend Laura Sue Rosner's beautiful painting depicting me being with. She shows me wearing tefillin, the Jewish ritual straps that bind the Sh'ma, a prayer about listening to and loving God's oneness, to my arm and my forehead. And from or to this prayer flows the rainbow, the spectrum of all colors, all possibilities, and the symbol of God's covenant with humankind. "עִם" (Im), the Hebrew word for With, is negative space amidst this spectrum, both the combination of all and the absence of specificity. It is the clear light before it hits an object. And surrounding my meditation, my "being with", is not emptiness but rather a dense, vibrant, dreamlike world of bougainvillea flowers and sky. "What if I were a flower and you were the sky..." (You (In Tight Embrace)).

I am honored to share our creation with you.