'Fundamental elements' are those basic constituents which are necessarily present in all forms of music, of any culture or style. If sound is taken as a starting point, this immediately implies its opposite: the absence of sound, which is silence. When we are making music the aim is to be aware of silence as a positive musical ingredient existing alongside sound. (For a fuller discussion of silence as a positive element in music see silence). Both of these elements (SOUND and SILENCE) have various properties and usages, one of which is DURATION. All sounds that can be either made or heard must have a length a beginning and an end. In order to register on the human ear, even the shortest possible sound (a 'click') must have some length (duration). Likewise, the longest possible sound (a 'sustain') which could be produced or imagined will be of finite length. If a machine was built to produce an everlasting sustain it is unlikely that it would function eternally, so even that sound would have an end.

In order to produce a click, it is necessary to physically retract or dampen (depending on the nature of your sound source) - as soon as the sound begins, it must end. To 'click' is an intense concentrated activity. When sustaining a note, the physical tendency is to expand. The two feel very different, and sound very different; physically and aurally they are opposites. Conceptually, however, they are opposite extremes of the same element - they are both durations of sound. A click is sustained for an instant, because it must have some duration in order for us to hear it - if it had no duration at all it would be silence, despite the concentrated effort which went into aiming for it. If a click lasts too long it can give the impression of being a sustained note. Similarly, if the sustain is short enough it could be identified as a click. Positive sustain, where you choose moment by moment how long the sound lasts, could be viewed as a series of clicks joined together. If the click is too close to the sustain it will disappear into it, in the same way as it remains within the silence if it is too fine. The click and sustain are different durations of sound. In order to differentiate between them we need silence. Silence also has the property of duration. As soon as we choose the length of the silence that separates the click and sustain, we are making a RHYTHMIC choice. Through the combination of sounds of different lengths and silences of different lengths, RHYTHM becomes manifest as the next fundamental element in music.

All music is made up of these fundamentals. Whereas specific rhythmic patterns become associated with particular cultures and musical styles, in our pieces we try to isolate those elements of rhythm which are common to all music.