Z2 has been a crucial piece in my output for, independently of any news about what American composers such as La Monte Young were doing, this piece consists of just one, staccatissimo note chosen by the player on almost any instrument; there must be silence before and after the note. This conceptual work has echoed in my mind to the present day - indeed - I often see my forcefield sequences as being one note (or at least, one atom of sound consisting of tiny particles of sound). Philosophically, also, Z2 is a starter for a meditation upon the note chosen - why that note? and all other Zen type of questions that this leads to.

Z2 was written in 1971 and I found it very difficult to go beyond this experience and yet stay true to it. False attempts eventually lead me to writing music exploring the enormous tensions I was aware of in silences. I really wanted to write music to take place in silence but, for practical reasons, I could not see a fruitful route to this. Therefore, in 1984-5, I started to think in terms of writing a music which insinuates sounds by barely, audible staccatissimo sounds accompanied by other tensions created by occasional longer notes. But how to preserve the impact of Z2 in this approach? For the note in Z2 echoes in the mind long after it is played. I decided that I could somehow sustain this impact by repeating my notes but slightly altered. I saw these sequences as a kind of mental forcefield which is set up and continues to exert a pull after the notes have been played - of course, I noticed that some structures have more force in them than others and this was when I realised I was a conventional composer too, for it depended on my ability and my vision to create music which did the things I wanted it to.