Madison, aka "the cave album"

On November 5, 2021, the band Sloppy Jane released their full-length record Madison on the Saddest Factory Records label (an imprint of Dead Oceans). Sloppy Jane's leader, Haley Dahl, composed a sprawling musical epic of astonishing grandeur and intimacy with the intention of recording all the songs in natural caves. True to her vision, the album was recorded at Lost World Caverns in West Virginia back in the autumn of 2019.

We brought a 3/4-size upright piano into the cave, along with over 20 musicians and their instruments. In the past, I had tuned pianos for the band in some of their Brooklyn practice spaces, but this setting was a new challenge. I did my best to keep the piano in tune and functioning in the unusual and extreme environment the cave maintained: 55ºF, 95% humidity. We became nocturnal, because we could only record in the cave when tourist hours had ended for the day.

A reporter from the New York Times joined us on the final day or two of piano tracking, a fact I had forgotten in the intervening two years. Then Haley sent me a message two weeks ago to tell me the Times article was finally out, and it included a quote from me.


above: a photo of Sloppy Jane bandleader Haley Dahl on the front page of the New York Times Arts section on November 3, 2021— two days before the album release.

above: my quote in the New York Times article. "'I don't think the idea was for this to be easy,' Caputo said. 'The idea was for this to be awesome.'" I'm glad my first mention in the Gray Lady denotes some of my most impressive talents: piano tuning and sitting on rocks.

I recommend listening to Madison with headphones in a dimly lit room to fully appreciate the immersive soundscape of the orchestra reverberating throughout the echoing, dripping cave. The full orchestral moments on the record sound almost exactly as they did live in the cave.

I got teary listening to the section of the title track where I was called in to pinch-hit for Haley, who otherwise conducted the whole album. Because of sightline issues during the piano-orchestra moment in which literally all other hands were occupied, I ended up conducting the music you hear from 4:38 to 5:31: an elegant waltz section that melts into a series of unsettling portamento slides interspersed with choral shushing.

above: a selection of the Madison album credits, as seen on the back of the vinyl record. One line reads "On-site Piano Tuning, Additional Conducting (Madison) by: Maria Caputo."

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