Beneath the horror, music.

Music Under Construction Sat. Oct. 4 at the Construction Company, 10 E. 18th St., 3rd fl., (betw. 5th Ave. & B'way), 212-388-0202 One of the most powerful works to bloom out of the ashes of the World Trade Center attacks was Elodie Lauten's S.O.S.W.T.C. Using synthesized ambient sounds of New York and jarring electronic sounds that fold upon themselves with the grit of collapsing steel, Lauten's meditation diverged from both the sentimental tributes and the haphazard patriotic arrangements that followed the attacks. She opted to express the horror of those morning hours, a feeling that she as a longtime New Yorker has a particular claim on, rather than the sadness of the aftermath. Released only a few months after Sept. 11, S.O.S.W.T.C. possesses a rawness that few other composers have been able to capture.

Just over two years later, Lauten shares another work. This one encourages a healing that remains wobbly and wrapped in collective memory. Called the Harmonic Protection Circle-a healing for New York, the work engages Lauten on her self-invented Trine, a lyre-type string instrument adjustable for a variety of specific microtonal tunings, and electric guitarist Jonathan Hirschmann in an extensive improvised experiment based on the naturally occurring overtone series. The work invites listeners to the next level of sonic comprehension, defined by harmonics and sounds that resonate out of the plucked or bowed tones.

Anyone familiar with Indian classical music recognizes this practice as one requiring patience and openness yet also capable of raising listeners from their earthly concerns with its insistent hypnotism. Floating in the wash of tone clusters is a ritual and mantras for healing, thus directing meditation toward recovery.

While this particular work may seem to echo the extended-duration compositions of minimalist pioneer LaMonte Young (and this is no coincidence, as Lauten studied with Young in the 80s), it represents only a sliver of Lauten's musical interests. A transplant from France, Lauten left Paris for New York in the early 70s, arriving during the musical Renaissance of the minimalist movement, as composers began to move away from academic forms (serialism and neo-romanticism) and blossom into an alternative community that craved more. Befriended by East Village pillar Allen Ginsberg soon after her arrival, the 22-year-old Lauten was immediately immersed in a cultural phenomenon to match that of her native city at the turn of the 20th century.

Pursuing life with ceaseless zest and unquenchable creativity, Lauten is a veritable sponge of the cultural ideas around her. Her solid training in mathematical systems and penchant for the mystical combine to give birth to a creative spirit whose power lies in carefully constructed conceptual works shrouded in the mysterious vibrations of the physical/spiritual world. She has a fascination with the cosmos through Indian Vedic cosmologies, the European esoteric tradition and astrology, and even compares the repetitious cycles of the Harmonic Protection Circle to "getting into a spell."

But Lauten is not a supernatural being. She is a total artist constantly moved to reassess her surroundings. She is a pianist, an instrument builder and a composer who is as comfortable working with the Fairlight Computer Music Instrument as with a viola d'amore, who is as likely to use medieval modes, polytonal figures or chromatic lines, as with alternate tunings, microtones and chance elements.

The other part of Saturday's program is her 1989 sound environment The Soundless Sound, with new choreography by Nancy Zendora. Audience members also receive a copy of Lauten's newest recording, Waking in New York, Portrait of Allen Ginsberg, with admission.