"In the works of Martón Illés from the early 2000s, physically perceptible energy, gestural force, and visual conceptions of the sonic are already present. After 2010 the composer drew further implications from these for his work: since then, his musical thinking has no longer been based on fixed pitches, but rather on sounds – either as acoustic manifestations of imagined lines or as gestures modeled on the physical. The way he actually implements this by means of instruments is impressively demonstrated in his series of works entitled Three Watercolors and Psychograms. The composition of the individual pieces was preceded by an in-depth practical engagement with the respective instruments. Illés considers this physical contact with the instruments indispensable in order to gain experience with the finest nuances of sound production as well as to assess extended playing techniques and thus break new ground in composition. In this way he develops a unique vocabulary of remarkable sound shapes and sound gestures which then come into play in his musical procedures.

Dynamic processes in different degrees of density and intensities of energetic content, “tension temperatures,” to use Illés’s words, play an essential role in this connection. In order to notate his sound ideas for the interpreters as precisely as possible, his scores have developed into a mixture of conventional musical notation, special notation that he created himself, tablature, and graphic notation. The meticulous artistic approach with which Illés infuses his compositional experiments also includes a critical examination of the tonal details, energies, and proportions within the musical form. For this reason, he often revises the first versions of a work after becoming acquainted with the sound result during the sensuous listening experience." - Eckhard Weber