The artists Friction Quartet commissioned the work after giving performances of Hellawell’s first two string quartets (The Still Dancers, 1992 and Driftwood on Sand, 2002) in the USA; the new work was given at Old First Concerts, San Francisco, where Friction are former artists-in-residence.

 

The work furthers Hellawell’s long-term experiment with form in which differently sized movements present the same musical narrative on multiple scales; these three pieces (numbers i,iii,v) are the ‘Family Group’, surrounded by three diverse interludes (ii, iv, vi), the ‘Aliens’, that reflect on materials in the main set.

 

The premiere can be seen and heard here: https://youtu.be/mDS8EZtj3sk