Kronos Quartet

Kronos Quartet – Terry Riley: Sun Rings (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:19:29 minutes | 1,48 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Nonesuch

Terry Riley’s collaborations with the Kronos Quartet have gained substantial audiences and continue to develop in interesting ways, even into Riley’s old age. They can’t be called minimalist even under a broad definition of the term, for they incorporate a wide range of influences. Perhaps none of those influences has been at once as exotic and yet as directly accessible as the use of actual electronic sounds from outer space in Sun Rings, recorded during missions of the Voyager and Galileo space probes. The work was composed in 2001 and 2002 and has been tweaked periodically since then. Riley sums up the work’s appeal neatly: “the intention [is] to let the sounds of space influence the string quartet writing and then to let there be an interplay between live ‘string’ and recorded ‘space’ sound.” Sun Rings is thus a part of the larger genre of works that combine analog and electronic sounds, but it’s a unique example that has a pictorial aspect any listener can grasp. As Riley indicates, the relationship between the string quartet and the space sounds has two modalities: the string quartet can either become part of outer space or represent the human element. A chorus enters later on, and the finale has some abstract intoned texts of a vaguely astrological nature; these, Riley says, are “to further emphasize that this work is largely about humans as they reach out from earth to gain an awareness of their solar system neighborhood.” They detract from the focus though: the string quartet is capable of representing the human element by itself. You can sample anywhere to hear the work’s characteristic mixture of spooky and calmly warm. Highly recommended. ~ James Manheim

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Kronos Quartet – Placeless (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 52:41 minutes | 1,01 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Kirkelig Kulturverksted

‘Placeless’ is the first collaboration between the San Francisco-based Kronos Quartet and Iranian singers Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat, two of the most important performers of Persian vocal music in the world today.
Recorded in Kulturkirken Jakob in Oslo in November 2018, ‘Placeless’ has fourteen melodies that Mahsa Vahdat composed to classical poems by Hafez and Rumi and the works of contemporary Iranian poets Forough Farrokhzad, Mohammad Ibrahim Jafari and Atabak Elyasi. Composers Sahba Aminikia (Iran/US), Aftab Darvishi (Iran/ Netherlands), Jacob Garchik (US) and Atabak Elyasi arranged the songs for string quartet.
For 45 years, San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet – David Harrington (violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and Sunny Yang (cello) – has combined a spirit of fearless exploration with a commitment to continually reimagine the string quartet experience. In the process, Kronos has become one of the world’s most celebrated and influential ensembles, performing thousands of concerts, releasing more than 60 recordings, collaborating with an eclectic mix of composers and performers, and commissioning over 1,000 works and arrangements for string quartet. They have won over 40 awards, including the prestigious Polar Music and Avery Fisher Prizes and, most recently, the WOMEX Artist Award (the first US-based musicians to ever do so). About Mahsa Vahdat.

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Kronos Quartet – Folk Songs (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 39:31 minutes | 783 MB | Genre: Folk
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Nonesuch

When Nonesuch Records celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2014, with festivals at London’s Barbican Centre and New York’s Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Kronos Quartet joined forces with four labelmates-Sam Amidon, Olivia Chaney, Rhiannon Giddens, and Natalie Merchant-to perform a concert entitled Folk Songs. The group later recorded the songs, most of which are traditional with contemporary arrangements, with Doug Petty as the album’s producer.

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