sum and difference is an album of collaborative improvisational compositions for laptop and instrument, developed over the past year between laptop improviser Sam Pluta and instrumentalists Peter Evans and Jim Altieri.

From the aggressive, gesture-driven sonic overload of Fusion, Diffusion, and Analysis/Resynthesis to the supple beauty of The Long Line, Evans and Pluta show us the huge range of their electro-acoustic duo. They work together and against each other to create a hyper-virtuosic kaleidoscope of sound.

sum and difference a + b, focusing on the immediate physicality possible in interactive electronic music, are exercises in live-processing simplicity, consisting only of Altieri's violin ring modulated by Pluta's noise-driven fm oscillator circuit. Yet, the result is a torrent of noise, gesture, microtonality, and lush beauty unique in the world of improvised electronic music.