Morton Subotnick (1933-)
After the Butterfly, pour trompette, ensemble instrumental et voix électroniques
The Wild Beasts, pour trombone, piano et voix électroniques

Mario Guarneri, trompette
Alan K. Bartholomew, violoncelle
Dane Richards Little, violoncelle
William Edward Powell, clarinette
James D. Rohrig, clarinette
Jay Charles Bulen, trombone
Toby L. Holmes, trombone
Marvin B. Gordy III, percussion
Miles Anderson, trombone
Virko Baley, piano
Morton Subotnick, direction

Morton Subotnick is a living legend in the development of electronic music. A leading innovator in works involving instruments and other media, he used many of the important technological breakthroughs of his time in his work as a composer. Many of his compositions contain electronic or computer-generated parts – as do the works compiled on this CD. “The Wild Beasts” was originally inspired by an exhibition of Les Fauves paintings, which left the impression on Subotnick that every subject can only be perceived through a strangely prismatic atmosphere, an atmosphere comprised of rare and possibly "unearthly" gasses, an atmosphere in which normal expectations of colour and shape would not exist. For these visual impressions, the composer developed an acoustic counterpart: a traditional musical instrument played into an unusual and continually transforming atmosphere, an atmosphere in which normal sound expectations would no longer exist. “After the Butterfly” is a concerto-like work for trumpet, instrumental ensemble and electronics. The work is one of a series of what Subotnick calls "ghost" pieces. Independent layers of increasing and decreasing intensities of sound material form the basis of the work.