Whether made by a computer or a cello, to composer Daniel Wohl it's all sound

Composer Daniel Wohl is classically trained and comfortable in the world of chamber music. But he also yearns for the musical possibilities offered by synthesizers.

"Really, what I love is seeing performers playing the instruments, but at the same time I want all that range of sound that electronics can provide," he said. "So I kind of brought those two together, which to me was the best of both worlds."

On Thursday evening, Wohl will bring his latest work, "Holographic," to the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's Liquid Music Series at the Ordway Concert Hall. Liquid Music not only co-commissioned the piece; it also commissioned the accompanying album.

Wohl doesn't recognize qualitative differences between acoustic and electronic instruments.

"What I am trying to get at is, there is no difference between a sound produced on a violin and a sound produced on a computer or by a synth," he said. "To me, it's all just sound."

For "Holographic," he uses a chamber group, percussionists and synthesizers that are also loaded with samples of singing for the piece. He said the challenge is not creating the sound, but finding the volume balance between the acoustic and electronic instruments.

"I think it's taken me like five years to start feeling happy about electro-acoustic performance," he said. "Because it's tough. But, yeah, I think at this point we've got it figured out."

The idea for producing "Holographic" came from Liquid Music Curator Kate Nordstrum. She approached a number of organizations about getting behind the project.

The goal was "to see if they would be interested in getting together to commission an album and have the live performance happen in their spaces," she said, "and to have each of the presenters speak to what Daniel was doing with 'Holographic' through their own unique lens."

The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Baryshnikov Arts Center and the Indianapolis Museum of Art all signed up. The album came out in late January to critical acclaim, and Wohl and his collaborators have played the piece at each venue, now ending up in St. Paul. The album took months of preparation and mixing, and Nordstrum admits she wondered whether Wohl could replicate it in concert.

"And surprisingly, how 'Holographic' sounds live is very, very similar to the album," she said, laughing. "I'm kind of shocked, in a good way!"

There's another commission and another collaborator involved in Thursday's performance. The Film Society of Minneapolis and St. Paul commissioned artist Daniel Schwarz to create a visual component to the piece.

"It's all moving," Schwarz said. "Some tracks are building notational systems or exploring different ways of visualizing music."

Schwarz blends geometric images and pictures taken from Google Earth, synchronizing it with the music.

In commissioning "Holographic" as a performance and as a recording, Liquid Music and its partners are trying a new model. Kate Nordstrum is pleased with how it has worked out.

"It's bigger than just the performance," she said. "It's bigger than just what people who happen to be here at this moment in time can see and talk about."

As a composer of new music, Daniel Wohl sees hope in the development.

"For presenting organizations or a museum to commission is pretty much unheard-of, to me at least," he said. "And I think it's a model that is really forward-looking and necessary right now."

Liquid Music's Kate Nordstrum said the model is a useful tool that she hopes to use again.

Correction (Feb. 9, 2016): Daniel Schwarz's name was misspelled in an earlier version of this story. It has been corrected.