The most advanced concept in modern music is that of silence as perceived by John Cage. But what possibilities does it open up to the composer?

There are a great many things that happen during a silence and the most important is the mental activity of the listener. My psychic music is a transitional stage towards a new mental music which may or may not be possible in total silence.

My music works mostly in the realm of near silence but with extraneous signal-like sounds which are fully audible and which are fully incorporated into the piece. Typically I use a structure consisting of a brief, barely audible preamble followed by an audible two or three note signal followed by barely audible music frequently employing very staccato,

The Micro Sonata (Jan. - July 1996) is an attempt to create a structure coming out of symphonic and sonata experience but creating tensions out of the mental forcefields created by my sequences. The piece was written in two pairs of movements. The first movement in each pair acts as a Prime to establish the energies whereas the complimentary second movement is there as an irrelevant piece of material enabling us to feel the energies already established as coming through more strongly. The "micro" of the title refers to my further interest in putting as much information as possible into the smallest duration of time.

Stanislaw Hansel, Dec. 1996.