<p><strong>Losing Touch</strong> presents an acoustic and electronic fusion achieved by deriving the electronic sounds from analysis and resynthesis of pre-recorded vibraphone samples. Each strike of a metal bar of a vibraphone involves two distinct layers of activity: the abrupt, complex and extremely short attack followed by the simple, pure and variable-length harmonic resonance. &nbsp;Using the computer program Additive, developed at IRCAM, the composer separated these two aspects of vibraphone sound and then used the results to create a virtual orchestra of vibraphone-based sampled instruments. &nbsp;Using computer assisted composition techniques and the IRCAM program called Patchwork (later Open Music) the electronic part was created in close relationship with the acoustic part. &nbsp;The two are inseparable at times, but as the piece progresses the complicated relationship between a technologically produced electronic sound and an acoustic sound with living musician becomes more and more pronounced. &nbsp;The two aspects of the vibraphone sound separate and “lose touch” with one another, just as the performer and the electronic medium “lose touch” with each other. &nbsp;In the end all elements of the composition come to occupy a space that is appropriate to the divide that separates human from machine.</p>