Gérard Masson grew up listening to jazz, played jazz trumpet, and began studying the piano in 1945, but had no formal training in composition until, after military service in Algeria, he returned to France in 1962.
[1] At about this same time, he made the acquaintance of Pierre Souvtchinsky, who introduced him to Igor Stravinsky.
[1][2][3] He was particularly impressed by Momente, about which Stockhausen lectured at the Cologne Courses for New Music in those years.
Often, a schema precedes the piece and it takes form as I write the work.
[1] His early orchestral composition Dans le deuil des vagues II (1968) showed some influence of Debussy, but also of earlier music.