Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring, Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish, Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?) Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d, Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me, Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined, The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here—that life exists and identity, That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse. Walt Whitman This album was conceived, written, recorded over the last 18 months. It began with an interesting melody at the very end of “Line”. That melody stuck in my head. For some reason it resonated, and I came up with the idea of morphing that melody and weaving it through a compilation of songs which shared either a musical, lyrical or stylistic motif. In fact, the working title of the project which ultimately became The Digression Theory was “Motif.” If you pay attention that melody, and many other motifs reappear in many of the songs on this album, albeit in different keys, time signatures, tempos and feels. 18 months is a long time… Especially when you are a teenager. I wrote and recorded this album in my room during part of my junior and senior year at JFK High school. Somewhere between getting into college, having a job, dating, proms, school concerts and being in and gigging with multiple bands it seems there were enough hours for writing, re writing, arranging, producing and recording this album. It was no small feat with tons of setbacks. Songs needed to be re worked several times, melodies and lyrics revisited often. First the songs were recorded as demos. Once the writing was complete and the initial recording was done mixing began. It suddenly became very clear that my engineering skills were not quite where they should be and virtually all the vocals, guitars and bass had to be re-recorded…That sucked. A lot. And took a long time to get right. My days tended to consist of worldly obligations followed by hours in my home studio (aka laptop in bedroom) for months on end… But I was content with that. What they say about doing what you love is absolutely true. It is not work. This is my first solo venture. I am incredibly proud of my work with Slacker, Genius and Mankitsu Exile. Both are amazing bands and I am honored to have been a part of the EP’s and albums we put out and the music made. This album is different. It’s mine. From beginning to the end. With the exception guest appearances of the amazing Killian Duarte and incredible Liam McLaughlin, every note is played by me. The artwork was done by Liam Hesslewood, and the mixing and mastering was done by Neel Madan. It is what it sounded like in my head and what I want you to hear. That said it has some limitations based on the fact that it was recorded as a DIY project with an extremely limited budget, most of which was spent on mixing, mastering and artwork. The most glaring limitation is the drum work. I would have loved to have recorded live drums, but alas it was outside of my budget. Though I spent a trillion hours trying to make the drum programing sound as human as possible they are not human. On the upside, I can now program the shit out superior drummer 3… I want to put this album into context. It is an ode to the music I love. Progressive Rock. I honor the spirit of Rush, Yes, Oceansize, Coheed and Cambria, Steven Wilson, Porcupine Tree, The Dear Hunter, Haken, Leprous, Mastodon… This is my contribution to long form music with complicated arrangements, complex song structure, technical virtuosity and obscure lyrics. For those of you who may think that this album is overly self-indulgent I say, “of course it is!” It is completely self-indulgent. The songs are long because I want them long…. They change keys, tempo, time signatures. These songs have too many guitar solos, keyboard solos, bass solos because that is what I wanted. It isn’t because I don’t know how to edit ideas down.. I did not want to. I wanted to contribute the antithesis of the 3:20 (verse chorus verse chorus bridge chorus out) template. I wanted to showcase the guitar in it’s full throated over indulgent wank-fest… I wanted to lyrically explore the topics of consciousness, relationships, good and evil, solitude, the process of creativity, space exploration, story of psychotic theater group using murder as a theatrical prop and what it means to be human in super long formats with all the musical complexity these topics deserve. So, dear critic, I know the songs are long, the solos longer, the topics all over the place… If I can’t be over the top and overly self-indulgent at 18, what’s the point being 18. 

Thank you for taking the time to listen to my music. Thank you to all who have supported and encouraged me to create. I hope you enjoy this album. I hope it makes you as happy as making has made me. So here is The Digression Theory Part 1 and 2. It is what the universe channeled through me this time around… next time it might be jazz or country or polka… But whatever it is, it will be my honest attempt to contribute but a verse to the powerful play that is music. Sincerely, Reese Ortenberg Musician 8/4/2018