This type of music is also known as punctualism or klangfarbenmelodie.

His work was radical, but avoided the punctualism of composers such as Pierre Boulez (in his works of 1951-53), instead employing more conventionally expressive gestures.

Stockhausen's two Elektronische Studien are amongst the earliest examples of composition with what he called "groups", in contrast to the earlier concept of punctualism or "point composition", in works like Kreuzspiel (Toop 2005, 3).

V.52 The fundamental underlying conception of the work is that of punctualism, a radical renunciation of both melodic and harmonic connections between tones which allows structures of "tone points" to arise that function throughout the entire pitch range (Frisius 2008, 46).

Manoury's work is strongly influenced by Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Iannis Xenakis, and his early work from 1972-76 combines serial punctualism with the densely massed elements characteristic of the music of Stockhausen and Xenakis, and the paintings of Jackson Pollock.