Most of Christou’s compositions usually have an extra-musical starting point: a concept, dream, or article. During the creative process, the thinker–composer recorded and archived his thoughts. As a result, we now have ample documentation of his philosophical and spiritual explorations.
His writings from 1968 show an attempt to draft an essay titled The Lunar Experience, which outlines both his vision of musical creation and the objectives of his artistic praxis from an anthropological perspective. In these, he develops his thought on the patterns (see Concepts) of life and the fears plaguing contemporary humanity, ideas which he then transmutes into musical and sonic terms within his compositions.
To Christou, the concept of the lunar experience encapsulates the primal terror of a sudden, total eclipse – an event equivalent to a major catastrophe or an unforeseen death. Since the death of his brother, the spectre of a sudden end permeates all of Christou’s work.
