Sparse in construction, timeless in imagery, arcane in meaning, mythological in characters and narrative, The Sign of Jonas is an apocalypse folk tale — a story of personal and cultural collapse, and regeneration. It is a song cycle lost and found: a musical manuscript orphaned by the cataclysms of the 21st century, and re-wakened to ritual life far in the future. The fragments of text speak of journeys, of death and rebirth, of decay and regrowth; the music is a ceremonialized cycle of part songs, responsorials, folk rounds, and incantations. Together, they are a folk-music-pageant-mystery-play performed by traveling musicians and their instruments:
fiddle, dulcimer, banjo, guitar, percussion, contrabass, piano … voices.