The electronic layer plays the role of a soloist, and is present throughout the work, initiating important motifs. The orchestra takes over the elements of the solo electronic part, uses them, and enhances them texturally and intervalically.
The electronic layer has been generated from the sound of a piano, achieved both directly on the strings and via the keyboard. Three basic transformation techniques were used: granulation, freezing, and stretching. The quadraphonic electronic layer was realised by Wojciech Błażejczyk.
Underground River 2 is the continuation of an idea that I started in 1987 for the Rencontre de Musique Contemporaine festival in Metz, France. Originally, Underground River was a spatial musical work, performed in a specially built architecture. At that time, I used electronic sounds generated by seven different instruments. The inspiration for both works is the underground river that flows underneath the city of Nancy, in Lorraine, France. The dark, mysterious, forgotten, silent world of an underground river. Such rivers exist in many places on different continents, including large cities such as Paris, London, Seoul, and many others.
The work lasts approximately twenty minutes. It was composed following a commission from the Musica Electronica Nova festival in Wrocław within the “Collections” programme – the priority “Composition Commissions” implemented by the Institute of Music and Dance.

Zygmunt Krauze