I wanted to play piano, and that slid quickly into writing - it wasn't enough to play other people's notes: I had to write notes too.

Boulez seemed to me to be a guy who wrote laws. Like a company lawyer.

I wanted to play piano, and that slid quickly into writing - it wasn't enough to play other people's notes: I had to write notes too.

Whereas Schaeffer and Henry were working like samplers, their idea was to capture those sounds which couldn't be serially calibrated because they were too complex in character.

So the ideology was that: use sounds as instruments, as sounds on tape, without the causality. It was no longer a clarinet or a spring or a piano, but a sound with a form, a development, a life of its own.

I probably went to musique concrete concerts - though not the very first ones - at the beginning of the 50s.

I think I came across Cecil Taylor a bit later, in 65 or 66. That really impressed me - Cecil Taylor is an amazing character... Both his music and the way he approaches the instrument are astonishing.