Other Presences began as a piece for solo trumpet and live electronics written by Jonathan Harvey for Markus Stockhausen, commissioned by Martyn Brabbins and the Cheltenham Festival. It was then performed at the Camden Roundhouse's Electric Proms in 2006. The piece is inspired by ritual Tibetan ceremonies where Stockhausen's written and improvised trumpet parts are looped and harmonised in real time. After recording the piece, the idea arose to ask seven other composers, many of them also Sargasso artists, to contribute a personal 'remix' of the original trumpet recording. The composers, chosen by Harvey, are all related in one way or another to him and his work, most notably, his own daughter Anna Harvey was asked to participate. Each composer would receive only the non-treated acoustic trumpet recordings and was allowed total freedom to interpret the sonic material as they wished in order to create a new composition. As the works started to emerge it became clear that each composer was proposing a very different approach to the material. The results go far beyond the original remix concept, offering a collection of personal re-interpretations of Harvey's original.

For his new CD, his 5th with Sargasso, John Palmer presents a series of new compositions exploring the process of breath and breathing. Each instrument, whether bass flute, accordion, voice, trombone, is pushed to the limit of its capabilities, while blending in seamlessly with its electronic counterpart, in order to express the humanity and spirituality of breath. Recorded in Stuttgart and St Petersbourg, the compositions feature virtuoso instrumentalists Antje Langkafel (bass flute), Sergej Tchirkov (accordion), Lydia Kucht (soprano), Yseult Jost and Domingos Costa (piano) and Slovenian trombonist extraordinaire Vinko Globokar ('Transfiguration') whose theatrical performances are legendary. Here, Palmer creates the perfect vehicle for Globokar's eccentricity and humour, while tackling the sombre subject of the Balkan conflict. 'Drang' is a unique tour-de-force for Tchirkov's accordion whilst Palmer's Zen Buddhist background informs works like 'Inwards' and 'Transient' where the 'physical' acoustic instruments are transcended by their electronic 'spiritual' counterparts.

A CD of extraordinary electronic works by American composer John McGuire. Originally written for multi-speaker systems, these compositions are concerned with the motion of sounds within the listening space, creating hypnotic swirls of overlapping patterns in and out of phase with each other. Born in Los Angeles, John McGuire spent thirty-two years in Europe, where he studied with Stockhausen, Kagel and Penderecki before settling in New York. His music focuses on pulse, pitch, timbre, motion and above all temporal proportion.