The other part of the ccmixter Leap of the Heart challenge was for me to remix someone else’s work. I was allocated coffeeeurope / Hektor Thillet whose work I didn’t know. The first few tracks I listened to were pretty funky – but didn’t really suit any of my uploaded samples. Then I came across Hektor’s beautiful and moving “Silence, I’m failing” sung in a husky voice to DoKashiteru’s piano piece “Aimée.” It was the obvious choice to mix with my poem to my Dad “Transcendence.” I downloaded all the samples while we were holidaying in Hokkaido and actually mixed them on the laptop and headphones during the day-long bus trip from the east coast back to Sapporo. So memories of Jack are now intertwined with Hektor’s voice, DoKashiteru’s amazing piano melody and mile after mile of a snow-covered, prairie-like Hokkaido in winter. I think there may be another poem in that one day.