Hard-to-classify strings.

"Nuove Uova II": Todd Reynolds with new works for violin and electricity Mon., Nov. 10 at Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette St. (betw. E. 4 St. & Astor Pl.), 212-539-8778, 9:30, $15.

Nuove uova. It's Italian for "new eggs," if you were wondering, and good for a smile if you try to say it out loud (or even just mouth it quietly to yourself?go ahead, no one's looking).

That chance for a little fun wasn't lost on composer/violinist Todd Reynolds when he named the show he'll perform Monday night at Joe's Pub. It's a good indicator of the kind of show he's put together, but he also meant it in a philosophical way. Each work on the set list was created for him (or by him) around his violin and processing gear, and though some of it has been played in different versions before, each piece is really getting its start in life with this performance.

The program includes pieces by New York composers Randy Woolf and John King, a new boombox addition to a piece by Phil Kline, a project for violin and laptop with Jesse Stiles, and a vibraphone/violin-structured improv featuring David Cossin.

Reynolds is a dizzyingly active figure in the downtown arts scene. He just finished a run of The New Yorkers at BAM with his Bang on a Can friends and is now celebrating the first CD release from his daring-to-be-cool string quartet Ethel (they even did an in-store at Tower Records). When I finally caught him on his cell, he was in a cab, periodically excusing himself to give the driver directions.

Trying to avoid the oxymoronic "new classical" label, I was at a loss for how to categorize the pieces he'll be playing at Joe's. So I started by asking how he classifies them.

"We just don't have labels for it, do we?" he says without apology. "The names that come to mind, which are a little bit trite, are like an 'avant-music cabaret.' I really don't know what to call it, thank god."

Though some music seems to live by its label (if we could get rid of the word electroclash, would the whole scene disappear?), Reynolds doesn't worry about defining what he does. A marketing nightmare, perhaps, but there's something about Reynolds, a combination of talent and personality, that inspires composers to write challenging and distinctly unclassifiable work for him.

"Nuove Uova II" is proof of that. Woolf describes his piece for violin and drum machine, synthesizer bass and turntables as "sort of a techno/hiphop/Bach Partita/blues fusion." Kline (the impresario of the annual boombox holiday caroling in Washington Square Park) helpfully creates a visual: his work is a series of pieces for violin and electronics, a "grand etude symphonique that puts Todd in the middle of a sea of boomboxes."

After Jesse Stiles lets me in on what he has planned, though, I have to confess I'm most intrigued by his Axe Puzzles?the title of which is "meant to evoke both a delicate or complicated problem and a giant wooden chopping tool that you can use to solve it." Stiles interacts with the computer using a variety of physical controllers, including faders, buttons and a special helmet he built that detects head movements. The sound of Reynolds' violin can also be used to control the computer. Despite this pile of gear, Stiles says the piece "has never been about technology. Good music transcends its physical origin, so while our eyes may be fixed on computer screens, our ears are in a better place."

If you consider Reynolds' violin with electronic supplements expanded violin technique, then you could perhaps describe Axe Puzzles as "expanded-expanded violin, plus crazy beats courtesy of yours truly," explains Stiles. So that's what you call it.