James Matheson's Times Alone is a 20-minute song cycle on five surrealist poems by the Spanish writer Antonio Machado dating from 1907. The composer has written "Antonio Machado's early poems are imaginative, deeply personal observations on Being and Spirituality in early 20th century Spain. They are urgent, modern, and sometimes devastating in the sheer loneliness of their perspective." Times Alone has been recorded on an all-Matheson Yarlung CD, by soprano Laura Strickling and pianist Thomas Sauer. many roads; Last night, as I was sleeping; Clouds ripped open; a rainbow; The wind, one brilliant day, called; and Is my soul asleep? For advanced performers.