In the liner notes for
Vertebra,
Matthew Ostrowski explains that
Vertebra is a computer program serving as a scaffold for live performance. The listener can hardly detect how it works in the music itself, as man and machine seem to become one.
Ostrowski's music is somewhere between electronic music and musique concrete. The four untitled movements of
Vertebra are equally frantic. The music is busy: sounds collide, climb on top of each other, pile up in a exuberant sonic orgy. Even the softer passages (like the end of "iii" and the beginning of "iv") retain a sense of urgency. The improvised nature of this music implies it is not "cinema for the ear." It doesn't have the level of organization necessary to conjure up a story, but its chaotic side brings in an organic feeling rarely found in musique concrete works. ~ François Couture