In Thai classical music, music is supposed to sustain a balance between four different modes: ‘diid, sii, tii, pao’ – ‘plucking, bowing, hitting and blowing.’ The Second Avatar pits these four traditional techniques against four ‘alternate’ sound producing techniques ‘treading, digging, shaking and sweeping.’ The two systems of sonority are played against each other to provide new ideas of balance and order.