The four works on this CD, ranging in date from 2004 to 2014, form an integral part of Andrzej Kwiecinski’s creative development and at the same time demonstrate his particular affinity with music for strings. Umbrae (2004) for string quintet. Mural (2008-10) for string quintet. Luci nella noote V (2014) for four string quartet. Contregambilles (2014) for string quartet. After studying composition, musicology and Baroque singing (countertenor) in Warsaw, Kwiecinski moved in 2005 to The Hague, where among his compositional mentors were Louis Andriessen, Martijn Padding and Yannis Kyriakides. Subsequent contacts have included Luca Francesconi and Hanna Kulenty (the only Pole among these names, also based in Holland) and he has also cited Gérard Grisey, Helmut Lachenmann and Salvatore Sciarrino as influences. But Kwiecinski, despite being only in his early thirties, is distinctively his own man, occupying his own technical and expressive world.