Ádám Kondor was born in Budapest in 1964. He completed his studies at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music, and in 1994 gained his diploma in composition. His most influential teachers were Albert Simon and György Kurtág. In composing this song-cycle he was inspired by the intimate, tragic tone of the aphoristic verses found among the unpublished writings of a certain French poet Dominique Hastieres, whose life was full of vicissitudes.