On the second week of January, 2017, I met up with my good friend Philipp Marguerre who was in London, playing at the Royal Opera House. I had hired a studio for Philipp to record this piece, which I had recently written for him, as a personal, angry reaction to some recent political events. The piece is entitled “Slam!” Philipp is an extraordinary musician, playing an extraordinary instrument called a verrophone, which was invented by German inventor and musician, Sascha Reckert. The verrophone is a modern version of Benjamin Franklin’s glass armonica. It is louder, lighter and less finicky than the armonica, and it is sufficiently similar in sound to Franklin’s invention that Philipp can make his living playing the armonica parts in “Lucia,” “Written on Skin,” and “Frau Ohne Schatten” in the finest opera houses and festivals in Europe and elsewhere. In addition to his high level verrophone skillls, Philipp is a first-rate pianist. The London studio where we worked, “Last Eight,” has a great piano- a Steinway B from Hamburg- and an excellent engineer, Lucinda Gallant, who also owns the place.