My Uncle Emilio passed away this past April. He spent most his life in a mental institution. And while we visited him from time to time, his presence was mostly experienced in a foreboding and ghost-like way. My parents would warn, "Keep THAT up and you'll end up like your Uncle Emilio!" Apparently, my behavior would make them nervous, and my parents were from a world where the sought help from priests instead of psychiatrists for mental disturbances.
So throughout my life, when things feel a bit slipping . . .
I find my thoughts always end up on Emilio and his sequestered life.

I learned the word "yoik" from the liner notes of a Morton Feldman recording and found the description striking. "A yoik is meant to reflect a person or place. This does not mean that it is a song about the person or place, but that the yoiker is attempting to transfer 'the essence' of that person or place into song - one yoiks their friend, not about their friend."
This album is a "yoik" to my Uncle Emilio.
credits
released January 1, 2011

Ernesto Diaz-Infante: Bajo Sexto, Electronic Tanpura, Singing Bowls

Recorded at Next Door to the Jefferson Airplane Studios, SF, California, Apr-Aug 2011. Composed by Ernesto Diaz-Infante.

Edition of 97 hand-numbered copies. Released by Kendra Steiner Editions. Packaged in a folded printed-paper 'cover', held in a clear plastic sleeve.