Mirage is a brief étude commissioned by Kwartludium and composed in 2007. Its direct inspiration came from the work of Jean-Claude Risset and the exploration of sound illusions which was so characteristic of that composer. Texturally, Mirage is almost entirely based on the illusion of an infinite accelerando (or ritardando), one of the more commonly known "Risset effects". Despite the use of only a dozen pitches or so and a great simplification of form (which structurally draws on the classical four-part fugue), in actual performance Mirage presents a number of difficulties, resulting primarily from the requirement of performing each textural layer with utmost precision, so that the appearance, the culmination and the 'dwindling' of each layer emerging out of the silence are strictly synchronised with all the other layers. The association of this piece with minimal music is to some extent justified, but it should be stressed that the repetitive material has been used here exclusively as a carrier of sound impulses of varying granulation.