Kronos Quartet
Plays Sigur Rós (MP3s)

307452

Track Listing

Click tracks with speaker icon to listen

1	Flugufrelsarinn	8:22
2	The Star-Spangled Banner	3:41

News & Reviews

Monday, September 29, 2008

Guardian: Kronos Quartet Show "Range with a Virtuoso Set" in "Outstanding" Barbican Concert with Alim Qasimov

Kronos Quartet joined legendary Azerbaijani singer Alim Qasimov and his ensemble at London's Barbican this past Friday for the center's annual Ramadan Nights celebration of Sufi music. The Guardian says the pairing produced an "outstanding" concert from the "intriguing collaboration" between Qasimov, "certainly one of the most thrilling, unashamedly emotional performers on the planet," and the Quartet, which showed "daring" and "range with a virtuoso set."
Friday, September 26, 2008

Kronos Quartet Joins Legendary Singer Alim Qasimov to Open Barbican's Ramadan Nights Festival

Kronos Quartet is in London this weekend for what promises to be a whirlwind of events at the Barbican: both its Open Weekend and Ramadan Nights, its annual festival of Muslim music. Kicking things off, Kronos performs tonight with the man who has been called Azerbaijan's greatest singer, Alim Qasimov, and his ensemble, including his daughter, Fergana. The Times (UK) calls the power of their vocals "devastating" and quotes Kronos's David Harrington as placing Alim Qasimov "up there in the top five of all time" among the world's greatest singers.

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About this Album

Nonesuch Records releases Kronos Quartet Plays Sigur Rós exclusively on iTunes—a first for the groundbreaking group, which has been recording for more than three decades. The two pieces included have both been staples of Kronos’ live concerts for several years but had never previously been available to purchase: an arrangement of Icelandic experimental rock group Sigur Rós’s “Flugufrelsarinn” (“The Fly Freer”) and an arrangement of “The Star-Spangled Banner”. Both tracks will be available for digital download on September 4, 2007.

“I first heard Sigur Rós in 2000 and it was thrilling,” said David Harrington, Kronos founder and artistic director. “I could not stop listening to them. Kronos had to play their music. Sigur Rós create entire universes with their sound: imaginary places populated by desires and colors and feelings that belong solely to the fleetingly understood realm of music.”

Kronos commissioned an arrangement of Sigur Rós’ composition “Flugufrelsarinn” (Icelandic for “The Fly Freer”), from the Ágætis Byrjun album in 2002. In its original, sung version, “Flugufrelsarinn” relates a parable of salvation and sacrifice, in which an unnamed narrator tries to rescue helpless flies in a lake from the jaws of the approaching salmon. In Stephen Prutsman’s arrangement for Kronos, the work takes on a new delicacy while losing none of its essential mystery.

The Quartet has been playing its Prutsman/Kronos version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” —inspired by Jimi Hendrix’s famous Woodstock interpretation—in concert since 2003. The Los Angeles Times called a recent performance of the piece, “a fiery political protest that recalled (Kronos’) roots exploring classic rock”. Although it has always been an audience favorite, the group had never released a recording of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before.