Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony release an exhilarating album of young, American composer Mason Bates' large-scale works for orchestra and electronica. Hear the first-ever recordings of his colossal "Liquid Interface" and the SFS-commissioned The B-Sides alongside Bates' supercharged work, "Alternative Energy". One of the most creative and ingenuous synthesists of our time, these works show Bates reimagining the dimensions of symphonic music by integrating jazz, techno, drum-n-bass, field recordings of a FermiLab particle collider, and more.

Inspired by a desire to offer my own kids a fresh guide to the orchestra, Philharmonia Fantastique was created to showcase both the artistic and technical wonders of the medium. Like its predecessors Peter & the Wolf and Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, it colorfully presents the instruments of the orchestra in the medium of a film soundtrack. Philharmonia Fantastique uses both musical genre and electronic sounds for characterization: noir-ish jazz for the woodwinds; bending lyricism in the strings; dark techno for the brass; drum-corps in the percussion; and, for our Sprite protagonist, a simple yet harmonically wandering piano melody.