D’eau et de pierre is the threshold work into Grisey’s mature music, the first work idiomatically recognisable as being in Grisey’s mature style featuring a gradually changing static ensemble texture. This chapter explores the influences on the work, showing how it tied in with the so-called meditative music of the era, in particular that of Jean-Claude Éloy and La Monte Young, each of whom was exploring long durations and static harmonic surfaces. It details Grisey’s attendance at the 1972 Darmstadt Summer Courses, where, alongside lectures and seminars by Chowning, Rădulescu, Xenakis, and Ligeti, he took part in Stockhausen’s seminars on Mantra and Stimmung. A performance of the latter by the Collegium Vocale Köln made a strong impression on him, performed by the Collegium Vocale Köln, made a strong impression on him. D’eau et de pierre was completed after this, and its form drew on Stockhausen’s concept of the degree of change of a given statistical sound.