Rotterdam-based composer/pianist Reinier van Houdt created six pieces from March 22 to August 22, 2020 for a monthly 'quarantine' series of the online festival AMPLIFY 2020: quarantine, commissioned by Jon Abbey. Each of the six pieces on 'drift nowhere past' was recorded on the 22nd of each month (#18, #75, #128, #155, #194, #211). "I've made these pieces from what I played, listened to, recorded, played back, read, watched, heard, or imagined, each during one specific day in the quarantine of 2020."

After the online festival ended along with the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, Yuko Zama invited van Houdt to work on a counterpart later to be released together with the six pieces on two companion CDs. "Where 'drift nowhere past' is a collection of journal entries and focuses on whatever is entering into the mind on a specific day each month, the new piece 'the adventure of sleep' concentrates on situations that recur every day: realizing the passing of time, hearing the sounds of neighbours, the moment of falling asleep, the moment of waking up. Like 'drift nowhere past’, 'the adventure of sleep' spans a six-month period and again the material simply came from what was already there, accessible, happening, remembered, imagined or otherwise.

For both these works, a quote by Franz Kafka served as a silent motto, its meaning even compounded by the Covid lockdowns during which the music was composed: “You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”