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For me, music is the interplay of two elements: the acoustic material and the spiritual idea. It is both means of expression, as well as a trade subject to daily work. The acoustic material requires preparation, structure and also selection to support the spiritual idea. While the majority of the acoustic material in classical music has been incorporated in a kind of general awareness, which facilitated its access, the increase of material in the 20th century, as well as a lack of a generally acknowledged system leads to essential problems in perception. Furthermore, linguistic structures play a key role in music as a non-significant art. When I compose, I have to systematically decide for a particular range, which governs the sequence of events and the series of form. Once the decision is made, there is no return. In this sense, composition resembles a tree-like system: a motif, a shape can develop in most different ways. Certain elements of a composition may become the seed of another. My work method is tied to psycho-acoustic phenomena and to the search for a language; a formulation comprehensible to the listener, a satisfactory analogy between language and perception is intended, based on the use of recognisable elements, such as motifs, "frozen" pitches or musical gestures. I do not want to start from scratch when I start composing, nor do I intend to make a clean sweep with the past. On the contrary; what I feel is important is the developing work on elements, which I become better and better at, to reach a certain smooth process and create a typical continuity between the individual pieces. I perceive my own development as some kind of "auto analysis", as I am fascinated by artists, such as Giacometti or Varèse, who continuously work on one and the same idea.
Michael Jarrell (quoted from the CD booklet "Musikprotokoll '90", 1990)