The “murmurs of waters” or of waves, the rhythmical patter of droplets, the thrill of whispers, the ‘noises’, for all their evocative power, make no attempt to describe.

In the words of Magritte’s famous title, “this is not a cave”!

With this music (from the 1970s) I had my heart set on starting an ‘abstract’ method — neither causal nor narrative — of dealing with sound organisation. In arranging displays of energies, it seems to me that I gave new prospects to the idea of development: the acousmatic horizon opened up, onto a music of harmonized forms and movements. This specific cave therefore became the symbolic one where, sheltered from chance and time, nature labours to create innumerable models.

Returning to this work a few decades later, I drew a renewed version of it, owing to the improvement of sound technique, I wanted to highlight this ‘return’ by working on variations — the echo of a drama.

… now, temporal figures, be reborn!

[xii-99]

Premiere

• May 30, 2000, Concert, Vienna (Austria)