Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or
view the MP3 Album.
|
Product Description
Review
It feels like a bit of a cheat to kick off a review by quoting someone else, but this particular quote is rather apt. David Harrington, the Kronos' artistic director and founder, once said, ''I've always wanted the string quartet to be vital, and energetic, and alive, and cool, and not afraid to kick ass! But it has to be expressive of life. To tell the story with grace and humour and depth''. With Floodplain, the Kronos Quartet has done all the above. Once again, they've pushed boundaries to produce a disc that stretches, excites and inspires the senses.
The album title refers to the fertile, flood-prone strips of land bordering rivers. The idea is that floodplains experience new life after the catastrophe of flooding, just as cultures that undergo great difficulty will experience creative fertility. Certainly, the countries represented here, from the Middle East, South Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe, have all endured more than their fair share of hardship, and the music frequently reflects this. Emotion is at its most raw; one senses anger, sorrow and wounds not yet healed, and this is certainly true for the disc's two newly commissioned works. The first of these, the edgy, unsettled Tashweesh, is by the Palestinian hip hop group, Ramallah Underground, who David Harrington discovered through myspaceIran. The second, Serbian composer Aleksandra Vrebalovs ''!hold me, neighbor, in this storm! '', is a dignified, contemplative hymn that whips itself up into an angry, whirling climactic frenzy. There are also traditional arrangements of works from Lebanon, Turkey and Iran, contemporary interpretations of classical music from Azerbaijan and India, and popular music from 1940s Egypt and 1970s Iraq. The quartet are joined in a hauntingly beautiful performance of the Azerbaijani folkloric love song, Getme, Getme, by one of Azerbaijan's most celebrated performers of the country's improvisational mugham singing, Alim Qasimov, and his ensemble.
Full marks to the Kronos Quartet for championing countries more known in the West for their instability than for their rich musical cultures. It's the vibrant musical performances though, saturated with humanity, pathos and soul, which give this disc its edge. --Charlotte Gardner
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
...mainly Muslim lands, that is. This is overwhelmingly folk-inflected world music, and the songs come from Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia, Iran, Turkey, India and Serbia. Every one of the 12 pieces was commissioned and either written, or in most cases arranged, specifically for Kronos. Most have a very traditional sound, despite their translation into string quartet arrangements. The main exceptions are "Tashweesh (Interference)," by the Palestinian group the Ramallah Underground, which features electronics, and the 22-minute "...hold me, neighbor, in this storm..." by the 39-year-old Serbian composer Aleksandra Vrebalov, which concludes the album. It is by far the longest piece, and the only one which falls into the category of contemporary classical -- it is a quintessential example of postmodern pastiche, with church bells, Islamic calls to prayer, and disparate elements representing the cultural diversity of Serbia.
The title FLOODPLAIN refers to the central role of rivers in many of the cultures of Eurasia and Africa -- the Nile, the Tigris & Euphrates, and the Indus, just to name a few. But the unifying theme is also the wars America has been waging in the Middle East and Southwest Asia and the desire of the musicians to transcend the cultural barriers that exist among all the peoples involved by sharing the stunningly beautiful music. The feelings expressed in the music reveal the common humanity of those who play, and those who hear.
Some highlights of the album for me include Hank Dutt's viola solo in "Raga Mishra Bhairavi: Alap" (the alap is the opening of a raga), David Harrington's violin in the Azeri song "Mugam Beyati Shiraz," John Sherba's violin solo in the Turkish "Nihavent Sirto," Jeffrey Ziegler's cello played in the style of a Kazakh horsehair fiddle in "Kara Kemir," and the soulful melodies throughout. The Ramallah Underground piece is quite powerful, as is the 1970s Iraqi song "Oh Mother, the Handsome Man Tortures Me."
This is a superb album! It is probably the most similar to NIGHT PRAYERS (see my review) of all those in the now extensive Kronos catalog. It would be wonderful if it contributed to the goal of breaking down barriers of hatred and stereotypes and hostility. Short of that FLOODPLAIN can bring some probably unfamiliar beauty into your life.
Peace, shalom, salaam, namaste.
The title FLOODPLAIN refers to the central role of rivers in many of the cultures of Eurasia and Africa -- the Nile, the Tigris & Euphrates, and the Indus, just to name a few. But the unifying theme is also the wars America has been waging in the Middle East and Southwest Asia and the desire of the musicians to transcend the cultural barriers that exist among all the peoples involved by sharing the stunningly beautiful music. The feelings expressed in the music reveal the common humanity of those who play, and those who hear.
Some highlights of the album for me include Hank Dutt's viola solo in "Raga Mishra Bhairavi: Alap" (the alap is the opening of a raga), David Harrington's violin in the Azeri song "Mugam Beyati Shiraz," John Sherba's violin solo in the Turkish "Nihavent Sirto," Jeffrey Ziegler's cello played in the style of a Kazakh horsehair fiddle in "Kara Kemir," and the soulful melodies throughout. The Ramallah Underground piece is quite powerful, as is the 1970s Iraqi song "Oh Mother, the Handsome Man Tortures Me."
This is a superb album! It is probably the most similar to NIGHT PRAYERS (see my review) of all those in the now extensive Kronos catalog. It would be wonderful if it contributed to the goal of breaking down barriers of hatred and stereotypes and hostility. Short of that FLOODPLAIN can bring some probably unfamiliar beauty into your life.
Peace, shalom, salaam, namaste.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
"World Music"? "String Quartet" surely a contradiction in terms. Not when it's the Kronos Quartet. These serious musicians have produced an interesting CD of fusions of music emerging from from the cultures based in areas surrounded by water and prone to catastrophic flooding, mainly the middle east but sometimes further afield. If you read the extremely informative booklet you can appreciate the music on an intellectual level, but to us ordinary folks the CD is a joyful, but sometimes haunting, celebration of humanity.
Format:Audio CD
A beautiful album. The Raga, and the Serbian track that ends the album, are absolutely gorgeous pieces of music - in just a fortnight of owning the album they've hit my 'top 25 most listened' list on my itunes due to constant listening!
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
World Class-ic...
My former knowledge of the Kronos Quartett was à bunch of men with high thoughts of themselves! My recent opinion is the same but now I know that really are fantastic. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Björn Åslund
Kronos Haiku
The best way I can review this unique music is through haiku.
early morning minaret -
discordant calls
cut the air
Sunday afternoon... Read more
early morning minaret -
discordant calls
cut the air
Sunday afternoon... Read more
Published on 1 Aug 2009 by Mr. G. J. Duff
The Kronos Quartet's Floodplain
The Kronos 4 have done it again! This is a stunning and evocative collection of haunting songs, at once sensual and moving, buoyant and celebratory. Read more
Published on 9 July 2009 by Evelyn De Meza
Pretentious on a first listen but actually some great music.
At first, I was left with the feeling that the Kronus were exploiting worthy issues to support a rather mediocre performance. Read more
Published on 5 July 2009 by J. Fryman
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
