In this article, the author notes that the label ‘the new complexity' is a growing trend in contemporary music (ca.1994). In discussing this trend he argues that such complexity only appears to concern music's inner relationships - the abstract aspects of music - whereas music of a truly ‘new complexity' should be based on both its inner (musical) and outer (extra-musical) relationships and the links between these two. Although founded primarily on traditional, western note-based music, he contextualises some of his discussion through his experiences as an electroacoustic practitioner, offering examples of inner and outer complexities in some of his own electroacoustic works.