Composer Mason Bates got his start in music as a DJ, where he learned to combine sounds and create new music using these techniques.  Somewhere along the way he started imagining the orchestra as the ultimate synthesizer and collection of cool sounds, so he began composing for the symphony orchestra.  The B-Sides are a collection of 5 short pieces of music which flow into one another.  Gemini in the Solar Wind features recorded conversations of astronauts and NASA ground control during a mission.  The sounds of the orchestra flow in and around these recordings in a way that evokes the vastness of space, twinkling stars, and zooming celestial objects.  Watch closely to see Mason Bates playing sounds from his laptop and synthesizer.  What family of instruments do you think these two instruments belong to?

Notes by Catherine Beeson, copyright 2022.