Recording of Zlatko Tanodi's Air. This piece was composed for bass clarinet and tape in 1997, and was first performed at the Music Biennale Zagreb festival in 1997 (the soloist for that performance was Ratko Vojtek). The composer's inspiration was the polysemy of the word air (air, atmosphere, area, aria, song with accompaniment). The motto of the whole work is a paraphrase of the concept of “air you were, air you are, and into air you shall return;” sound is treated as a special physical condition of the air needed for acoustic perception, as well as for starting of the resonance of the bass clarinet’s body. While a naked instrument looks for its own expression, offering building material heartlessly exploited by sampling machines, a cause-effect of man and machine appears: it is not possible to distinguish who is who. The acoustic instrument would like to sound like an electronic one, and electronic instruments more faithfully imitate acoustic ones. However, at the end, all these are just vibrations in the air, all is but air. Other association lines are also possible (e.g. building, history, money ways, etc.). This composition has four movements: RespIRAtion, PrepARatIon, Aria and Gone with the Wind. The electronic part recorded on the DAT tape (or CD) is made by electronic transformations of the bass-clarinet sound (except well-known rhythmic quotation). The composer tried to make a virtual interaction with soloist, in that the listener is not sure if soloist goes after tape or - on the contrary - the tape goes after the soloist. Consequently, the listener is not quite sure about the origin of the sound: is it recorded or is it live? For that reason it is necessary to have quality amplification (stereo). In the case of live performance, a microphone for the soloist is needed only in a large concert hall. Once started, tape runs until the end of the piece. The relation of loudness between performer and tape is defined by the first sound on the tape: it must sound equally as a soloist.