In 1973 the BBC Enterprises of London, England released the ninth vinyl album in their series of Sound Effects, compiled and edited by Rosemary Davis. It is unclear who actually recorded these sounds or who made them, as only vague descriptions are given and no actual author is credited. However, it is stated: \"Copying Sound Effects in this record for use in conjunction with amateur plays or films is permitted.\" Around 1981, at age 16, I acquired a record much like this from my local record shop in Moers, Germany. It was in the bargain bin. As I put it on the record player, I imagined a large systematic composition made from all of the 37 recorded sounds, strongly influenced by John Cage's \"Roaratorio\" (1979), which organized environmental sounds recorded in Dublin, Ireland via John's I-Ching random operations. But, as everybody knows, being a teenager really sucks, because you never get what you want, even if you try sometimes. What I ended up materializing with my UHER Royal Deluxe tape machine was different from what I had envisioned, because even if I had all the technology of 1982 at my disposal, I did not possess the algorithmic knowledge yet. Such is the hubris of youth. Luckily, as I got older, I got smarter at hiding my modest mathematical abilities under the mantle of a utopian science. Even so, it took me 33 years to finally find the secret formula that would yield \"Reasons for Living in the English Countryside\". (...)
