I wrote this while suffering from the depression which followed cancer. With large mood changes, I saw past-present-future like colourful montages or an oddly cut film noir. I lost touch with reality, with many people and things. I was hoping to gain control and order out of the chaos in my life ñ perhaps as a computer works out the permutations of a set of numbers or of a set of chosen notes. The theme of the music ñ the haunting distorted hymn ñ derived from the thesis for my Masterís degree on computer music. The five black keys of the piano is assigned to the digits 1 to 5. I then combined these with three chosen white keys E, F and B, chosen because they produce the dissonant semitone and augmented 4th to give a tang to the melody and harmony. I assigned these to the letters X, Y and Z. These eight notes were arranged into permutations: e.g. 1Z23Y4X5, 1Z23X5Y4, 1Y24Z3X5, 1Y24X5Z3, 1X25Z3Y4, 1X25Y4Z3 etc., together with their modulations, these produce endless eight-note melodies. I chose a few and combined them into harmonic texture to my liking, resulting in the nightmarish distorted hymn at the beginning of the piece. Its development and varied recurrence express how I felt at the time. I feel that the best way to use the computer artistically is to introduce human elements as soon and as much as possible, and never let the machine take over. I made use of, and developed, materials that were the result of my own human errors, as I regarded them as my subconscious as a trained musician rebelling against a mechanical rather than a musical order. I was quite happy to see that the performers enjoyed playing this work, and I hope you will find this enjoyable too.