This album is a document of my first year living in Saudi Arabia from February 2009 to Summer 2012. This was recorded in November & December of 2009.

Track 1: "Where's Josef?" was recorded the day I left Sacacca, Saudi Arabia (where I lived at the time and includes a bunch of the sights & sounds of that city.

Track 2-3: "Spngs in Hassan's Car" are what I heard while a friend of mine (Hassan) was driving me to the Arar airport, about 30-40 minutes from my city. Because of this, none of the music or voices you hear are mine. I don't think I speak at all on either of these tracks. I preserved these with the feedback as a document of what I heard: good music, handclaps, singalongs, and friends. If you're wondering, I was in the backseat and I tried to type "Songs in Hassan's Car" as the track title, but I made a typo that I ended up linking so much that I made it the official title.

Track 4: "The Beginning, or Biter Tea Thoughts" were recorded when I had already gotten to the airport in Arar and I was waiting for a flight to Riyadh, where I would have a layover of a couple of hours before I would be flying back home to New Jersey, where I lived at the time. The sounds of the kids playing were what I heard while I was waiting, but the dialogue was recorded later.

Track 5: "Jumah Prayer, Riyadh" was recorded by the side of Al-Baz Road in Al-Sulemaniah, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This was the same road I would walk every morning to and from work when I worked at a language school there. I would hear the birds singing and the prayer call and it was so nice. I wanted to record some of that while I was back in this city.

Tracks 6-8: "Call to Mayno" were recorded after I returned to New Jersey. I did a bunch of stuff, some recounted here, some not. I made sure to call my Great Aunt Mayno, who was in her mid-nineties at the time, but has since died. We talked a little while about this and that. I think this conversation reveals a little about what I was focused on during this time.

Track 9: "You Can't Go Home Again (Version 2) is indeed the second attempt at this track, which is a reflection on this album in general. This was the first time I attempted to record using multiple audio tracks on a single song. It was a big first for me. All my previous albums were recorded live on single track. This piece was recorded at the tail end of my trip home when I was feeling like all the people from back home had just moved on without me. Of course I found out much later that my vanishing act to Saudi left a hole in their lives that they had needed to fill with routine, pets, and other things but at the time I didn't know that. As you can tell in this track, I was feeling excluded and eager to get back to my expat friends in Saudi.