One thing I learned from Muhal Richard Abrams [an A.A.C.M. co-founder] and the Experimental Band: He’d write these compositions, and then he’d ask people to improvise. And people would take off doing whatever they wanted to do. You can’t just do that. Experienced improvisers will look at the materials, and then they will develop those materials in the same way you would do if you were writing the composition. I gave James certain pitch elements, for the electronics. And of course William Winant and I had real notes. I look at the composition, and see what elements are there.

The droning tones in that track remind me of an earlier piece of yours, “S II Examples.” But your playing is always developing. When Mr. Fei’s electronics get intense midway through, you respond with some ferocious timbres. It sounds like you’re searching for a new articulation, on every single note.

Absolutely. I was once in the car, listening to this radio show, and then all of a sudden this saxophone player came on and I was thinking, like: Wait, every note is different. Every articulation is different. And then at the end they said: “That was [the saxophone great] Benny Carter.” I was so relieved, I didn’t know what to do.

With the “S II Examples,” I had that curved soprano saxophone. I went through all the different possible fingering patterns, and then put together multiphonics, quarter tones, and so on and so forth. I can take that to another place, now that I’ve learned how to circular-breathe.

“Spatial Aspects of the Sound” is a striking, somber chamber piece. You conduct it, and then play piccolo, toward the end.