This chapter follows up on Chapter 3 by presenting nine portraits of works for multiple orchestras or for an orchestra divided into spatialized groups composed, premiered or reprised between 1958 and 1978 by Henry Brant, Henri Dutilleux, Gunther Schuller, Luigi Nono, Toshiro Mayuzumi, Gilles Tremblay, Harry Somers, Charles Ives and Anthony Braxton. These works were premiered in New York, Boston, Paris, Darmstadt, Toronto and Tokyo. The common features of these works invite their being studied as a group, focusing on the ways composers and critics characterized these works premiered in the heyday of both post-war avant-gardism and the public dissemination of stereo hi-fis, thereby creating points of contact with the works discussed in the previous chapter.

The chapter reflects on the birth of jazz-rock fusion, looking at both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK Graham Bond employs Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and John McLaughlin. Ian Carr's Nucleus creates a new blend of free jazz and rock rhythms and Jon Hiseman explores simllar territory with Colosseum. The chapter explores the creation of Tony Williams' Lifetime, and goes on to look at Mahavishnu and Billy Cobham's various bands. Miles' and Williams' band members add their reminiscences.