This unusual music theatre work has been described as “a modern operatic meditation on the nature of desire which weaves the lyric voice, new music technology, dance, video, and the spatial relations of light and sound to explore the nature of human desire and the quest for fulfillment in the contemporary world. There is a certain unease today with the proliferation of technology: a confusion between the real and the virtual, a conflict between materialism and spiritual values. This is where Powers of Two begins: four characters seeking answers and fulfillment outside of themselves, in a world where there is much to desire but little to satisfy.”

The music on this CD promises to be the most sensuous and lyrical ever heard in the electroacoustic music genre. Taking lyrical texts from the 17th through to the 20th centuries, Truax gives musical expression to the human desire for “the other”, whether a mirror image, an idealized partner, or a complementary opposite. In Powers of Two, these relationships are dramatized on stage with the disembodied electroacoustic element creating a soundscape of extraordinary beauty and dramatic force .

CD 1

1. Powers of Two: Repetition

2. Sequence of Earlier Heaven

3. Powers of Two: The Sibyl

CD 2

1. Powers of Two: The Artist

2. Sequence of Later Heaven

3. Powers of Two: Beyond