Between gigs on winter terraces , walks on frozen
streets , chamber music rehearsals , and the recognition of the good and
the bad in man and machine , my quartet was born . It came at a time of
reconciliation , of a dawning acceptance of the beauty , the necessity
of exploration of advancing technology in music . Before then I had
trouble with the synthetic nature of contemporary music ; it seemed to
me a symbol of the degradation of the importance that we give to nature
in society . However , as I listened more and more to electronic music ,
as I rehearsed Philip Glass with my friends , I came to accept that
there is a coexistence as natural and wonderful as a cup of tea . Yes ,
it still worries me , the level to which we have come to depend on
technological advantage , and I feel we have a long way to go before we
reach equilibrium .
In the meantime , I wrote this piece and
prepared it with completely synthetic effects in the hope of reaching
that balance , at least from an aesthetic perspective . It starts
somewhat coldy , a siren , a train motor , a deep respiration and a sigh
. It twists , it turns , and by the end humanity and its steel and
plastic progeny are one .