MOORHEAD, Minn. — Doug Harbin’s written lots of compelling music and he’s experimented with unusual sounds, including sounds from space. So when a scientist friend suggested he listen in on the noises of bees and butterflies for inspiration, the Moorhead composer couldn’t resist.

Eavesdropping into the insect world led him to write two compositions, “Wingbeat,” driven by the sounds of monarch butterflies, and “Drones,” a kind of symphony of bees. They’ll be performed in January at Concordia College in Moorhead.

The pieces start with simple natural sounds — a buzzing bee or a butterfly wing flap. Harbin manipulates those sounds electronically, so as the intensity builds the original sounds are unrecognizable.

"I've written pieces for orchestra or solo string instruments where the instrum

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