Recording of Gabriel Prokofiev's Zhiva. Zhiva is essentially an abstract work, allowing each listener to follow their own meanings as the music moves between various meditative and agitated moods. Zhiva reflects the introspective experience of losing oneself in the lively wanderings of consciousness. The use of pitched sounds, which create a melodious, positive, and occasionally meditative sound world, was a prime artistic concern of the piece.

Recording of Joseph Hyde's Zoetrope. It explores issues around the relationship between people and machines, and questions perceptions of the perfection of technology. Sound is absolutely at the center of Zoetrope. It is the sound that carries the piece, dictates its form. Zoetrope uses concrete sounds and images and the language of Musique Concrete. It also takes on a little of the LoFi/Hi Tech gloss of MTV, whilst remaining one step removed.

Recording of Stelios Giannoulakis' Zrrraam!. This work consists of processed speech, instrumental sounds, water, machines, and doors to help explore the duality between "inside" and "outside". The piece was mentioned at the Bourge International Electroacoustic Competition in 2000.

Recording of Riccardo Dapelo's Zu klugen Gestirnen. For soprano and tape. The work is derived from a picture poetry of Paul Klee. The composer tries to separate elements common to Klee's theory. The starting point is a small sound gesture: an upward exponential function. This function shapes all the steps of the work in a motion from noise to sound. The attempt is to build a self-similar structure with matching between small details and larger forms.

Recording of Grant Chu Covell's Die zweite sommer abendstimmung am traunsee. The composer writes of this piece: Woe to the composer who dares to use a foreign title. The consequently required translation and explanation might not be worthwhile. Traunsee is a lake in Northern Austria, a popular vacation spot for Arnold Schoenberg and his family. At Traunsee, Schoenberg reputedly divulged his theory of twelve-tone composition to a few students and friends, intending to forever change music’s course. Traunsee may also be depicted in the third movement of Schoenberg’s Orchestral Pieces, Op. 16, alternately called Farben (Colors) or Sommermorgen an einem See (Summer Morning by a Lake). This last title is perhaps the most obvious reference for Die zweite Sommer Abendstimmung am Traunsee (The Second Summer-Evening at Traunsee). Instead of a gradual dissolution of tonality or a play with colors, I offer something corrosive, oppressing and nightmarish. Here is a sinister picture of the lake, perhaps revealing Schoenberg’s misgivings about his new system. Representing tonality’s last gasps, Mahler snippets are also enmeshed into the texture. The sound world of this piece is intentionally dated. I can imagine this piece accompanying an avant-garde film from the 70’s or something by Tarkovsky.

Recording of Takehito Shimazu's 〇✕△☐. For this composition, the composer produced a special computer program written in C and Assembler computer languages. The purpose of this program was to create sequential data as a means of reflecting, defining, and executing the form of the piece. The composer chose to include a randomizing element in this program in order to more closely simulate human performance of the material performed by the computer element. In terms of form, this piece consists of 5 parts, but these parts are intended to be less than distinct in their separation from each other. The 5 parts are meant to reflect the four shapes indicated in the title of the piece (〇✕△☐, or Circle x triangle square) and a final unification of these shapes. Each of the four shapes found in the title has a part of the composition dedicated to it; the fifth and last part of the composition unites these 4 figures. Performance of this piece features a computer accompaniment paired with a live performer. This pairing allows for a conversation between a moderately inflexible computer accompaniment and a live performer's comprehensive grasp of emotion and timing in musical performance. As a result of …