The Furies is a solo project by American, Massachusetts-based poet, pianist, composer, and head of The Bodily Press label, Eliot Cardinaux, featuring new compositions alongside older surreal and impressionistic music, woven through with poetry written over the last two years. The album was recorded at Northfire Recording Studio in Amherst in February 2026.
The album’s title was inspired by a quote of Russian dissident poet Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938), who imagined our relationship to literature as a furry beast. «Winter clothed him. Literature is a beast. The furriers—night and winter».
The album begins with the short, somber serial poem featured in «Piano Day (bombs)». This poem was written during the so-called «Twelve-Day War» begun on June 13th, 2025, when Israel bombed Iranian nuclear sites unprovoked during U.S. negotiations to broker an Iranian nuclear deal. Cardinaux struggles to make sense of the human rush to exercise futile violence and destruction in a series of cyclical-minimalist, seventeen poetic fragments, including: «reality lies. because you say. / to hour the inconceivable. / how you take. your word. / when excess is all we have».
Cardinaux introduces «Eerie Street» with a solo piano, then recites three short poems – «Mile Eighty-One», «Mile Eighty-Two», and «Mile Eighty-Three», stressing the sombre spirit: «Territorial flourish. / The land sprawls // newly under a map / of burning // trees. Settled, / the world resorts // to reformulation. / Dead air lengthens // the eerie street / dancing out in it- // self, repeating, day / after day».
The 25-minute «Black Swans» is dedicated to composer Daniel Levine, sketching and reflecting on the eventful, winding way Cardinaux’ musical and poetic universe was enriched with quotes from Thelonious Monk’s «Coming on the Hudson» and «Ruby, My Dear», Levine’s «Fractured Memories», Duke Ellington’s «The Single Petal of a Rose», and Johnny Green and Edward Heyman’s «Body and Soul». Cardinaux recites poetic stories, sings, repeats that «history has given us no chance», and concludes this insightful journey with: «poetry is the language that otherwise / slips through the cracks holding / onto your pieces twirling / the queen around your thumb / stepping onto the last / public square / we will walk the savage earth / together see the lights / of the city poetry is / everywhere it has emerged».
The Furies ends with three instrumental pieces. The playful and reflective Ellington-tinged «Prelude to a Dream» is a natural extension of «Black Swans». The dramatic «The Very Reliable Mr. Podgoriča», dedicated to Sean Norton, and the beautiful and reflective «NiLFiSK» close this impressive poetic journey.
Eyal Hareuveni
Eliot Cardinaux (solo piano, spoken word, voice)
