On the Other Ocean

In 1977, Behrman began to use a computer and homemade synthesizer to 'listen' to players and react to what they played. Figure in a Clearing and On the Other Ocean are his first pieces. Extremely sophisticated, yet extremely simple; totally committed to technology, and yet totally human, highly abstract, yet highly emotional. On the Other Ocean, drifts placidly on six pitches. Arthur Stidfole plays lush, sustained bassoon tones, Maggi Payne adds slow flute lines of great warmth, and a microcomputer, Kim-1, provides sustained electronic tones that respond automatically to the instrumentalists. Figure in a Clearing, moves somewhat more erratically on its six pitches. David Gibson's cello tones blend miraculously with the triangle waves of the computer's response, and man and machine seem finally and irrevocably joined.

Originally released by Lovely Music on LP in 1978; reissued on CD in 1996.