Every since laptops as a live music source for artists, especially DJs, became ubiquitous on the club & concert scene in recent years the question continually arises: are they actually creating live music up there on stage or merely  checking their e-mails as a pre-programmed music mix plays?

In some cases the "artist" may be just checking his/her emails or updating their Facebook account but most real artists are utilizing their laptops' numerous programs in creative musical ways.

And in increasingly common cases there are more than one laptop musicians in action. The Bay Area quartet Cat Five (featured on Independent Sounds: Amoeba Music Compilation Vol III), formed by Balanceman and Darkat almost a decade ago, is an example of a laptop group. With their preference being Apple computers all four would construct freeform live compositions.

And taking it to the next level is the Worldscape Laptop Orchestra (pictured left) - a fifty person laptop musician collective who a couple of months ago put on an orchestrated, fully rehearsed all laptop  performance at Britain's University of York led by composer Dr Ambrose Field who acted as the performance's conductor (just like in a traditional full orchestra) whose goal, he said, is to help pave the way in music for "larger all-digital ensembles."

The Worldscape Laptop Orchestra's 50 performers each worked exclusively with Apple laptops (their sponsor) as their instrument with custom software that was produced to enable wireless communication with each computer sharing audio and control data. The full range of software functionality used in the performance included video detection where hand movements of performers were decoded by the MacBooks.

Of course there are many other laptop orchestras besides the Worldscape Laptop Orchestra. There is the Moscow Laptop Orchestra and in the US the 15 member Princeton Laptop Orchestra overseen by Dan Trueman at New Jersey's Princeton University.  See interview and performance  in video below from TV news story from two years ago. One main difference is that the Worldscape is all wireless.  But the future possibilities of this style of digital orchestrated music is endless and exciting.