Basically you have two tracks of electronic sounds that span a wide range of ideas, textures and rhythms.

The story here, I guess, is that the opera's original composer, Gian Carlo Menotti, originally had some pretty basic electronic sounds in his original production for the voices of extraterrestials.

Ciani was brought on board to update this aspect of the production and she created this electronic score which is outstandingly weird and still sounds very forward thinking.

There's the occasional timbre or sonority that hints at an earlier time. Basically it sounds better than something would sound now, it has an analog sensuality to it that you would miss if it weren't there.

Most reviews have stated that it isn't the easiest listening on its own, without the visual element. I suppose that would be true for many people, but I must be in the right mood for this because I find it enchanting and even soothing in its complete strangeness.