In all honesty, when I was invited by Min Kwon to participate in this project, I was quite reluctant. I find nationalistic sentiment dangerous, and will not write or sing praise songs to this or any nation. I am surely not alone in this, especially now that we’ve seen some of this nation’s most powerful citizens implement terror, cruelty, and violence against the most vulnerable, under a false banner of patriotism. In the end, instead of declining the invitation, I managed to assemble this depleted, ambivalent, mournful echo of the original. – Vijay Iyer