Performed by:
RaeAnn Graef - vocals, keyboard
Christian Guirreri - electronic wind controller
Jonathan Kidwell - midi guitar, bass guitar
Sonny Ratcliff - acoustic and electronic percussion
Juan Carlos Somarriba - bass guitar, electric guitar
Matt Steidle - electric guitar, midi guitar

I. Meeting of the Spirits
by John McLaughlin

II. Improvisation
by John Hildreth

III. Ensembles
by Bruce Mahin

IV. Catacombae
by Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881)

V. Percussion Solo
by Sonny Ratcliff

VI. Essay
by John Hildreth

VII. Trilogy
1) Prelude
by Jonathan Kidwell
2) When the Heavens Birthed the Storms
by Juan Somarriba
3) The Storm
by Juan Somarriba

VIII. Development
by John Hildreth

Notes:
Meeting of the Spirits - virtuoso guitaris John McLaughlin achieved worldwide success in his formidable performances with composer Miles Davis; in the years since, his work has migrated toward fusion of jazz, rock, and eastern musical practices. Originally written for rock ensemble, this tune consists of an F#-phrygian ostinato that juxtaposes a 5+7/8 figure over a 6/4 pulse. In tonight's performance, the piece features solos by RaeAnn Graef, Jonathan Kidwell, Chris Guirreri, and Matt Steidle.

Improvisation - this chart was written for the ensemble in January of 1999, and is comprised of a slow blues in A-minor. Soloists include Sonny Ratcliff, Jonathan Kidwell, Matt Steidle, and Juan Carlos Somarriba.

Ensembles I - Ensembles I is written in a mobile compositional form much like Stockhausen's Klavierstuck XI and the Third Piano Sonata by Pierre Boulez. This work offers performers musical cells which are chose in a quasi-aleatoric manner. Each performer selects a musical cell on which to begin the piece. After a fixed time period each performer moves to another cell which shares a common border with the one currently being played. This process continues until the end of the piece. The composition concludes after a duration agreed upon by the performers has been elapsed.

Catacombae/Percussion Solo - Sonny Ratcliff presents an improvisatory tour-de-force of mixed percussion (acoustic and electronic), which is introduced by a famous movement from Mussorgsky's Pictures of an Exhibition.

Essay - also written for this ensemble, Essay is a quasi-concerto for guitar and midi ensemble. The tune explores the coloristic nature of the ensemble in both its cinematic climaxes and etheral shifts, through which the guitar communicates a variety of different moods. Sonny Ratcliff (midi Kat) and Juan Carlos Somarriba (electric guitar) are featured soloists.

Trilogy - this three-movmement set was conceived of, written, and arranged for the ensemble by Jonathan Kidwell and Juan Carlos Somarriba. The prelude initiates the motivic and harmonic materials of the following movements by providing a series of short variations upon the main theme instead of stating it outright. The music in Trilogy is quasi-minimalistic in its content, and builds incremently from the pulsating prelude to the quasi middle ground of When the Heavens Birthed the Storm, and finally to the emotionally-driven, cinematic vitality of The Storm.

Development - written for the ensemble in September 1998, Development is a multi-sectional work that features a solo for nearly every member of the group. The piece explores both modal and diatonic harmonies, and is bound together by a single, transforming melody based on the phrygian scale. Development possesses a certain rhythmic vitality that shifts from fiery, hard-hitting grooves to quiet, reverberant passages, all of which build to an ultimate disintegration at the piece's end.