Imagine the situation, in the second half of the eighteenth century, when the string quartet was still a young and unestablished genre, its moods and humours waiting to be unlocked and discovered for the first time. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, the saxophone quartet is in a similar position and is, perhaps, one of the few genuinely new ‘classical’ music ensembles to have recently emerged. In the last century, professors at the Conservatoire de Paris led saxophone quartets, but they attracted little or no music of significance. Only in the last thirty years has the character of the medium taken its place within the present zeitgeist: its sound rooted in a jazz past, but now embracing the multiplicity of stylistic references that lie at the heart of new music at the present time.

The Lunar Saxophone Quartet, formed in 2002, belong only to a second generation of such ensembles, moving away from the jazz orientated groups of the 70s, such as the World Saxophone Quartet and, in a British context, following on from the pioneering work of the Apollo Quartet, formed in 1985. Like any quartet not content to perform arrangements alone, commissioning new work lies at the centre of LSQ’s philosophy. Flux is devoted to music either composed for LSQ or composers with whom they particularly identify. Like all saxophone quartets, LSQ have an individual performance style. The music on Flux reflects their attempt to build a repertoire that is both coherent in terms of the group and which will be accessible, without compromise. It includes the work of young composers who are their contemporaries, working in London, where they are now based, and Cardiff, where the group was originally formed, alongside more established figures who have left an impression on their playing.