Floodplain

Extenuated Enyaesque twittering despite nice recording techniques. As Ali Akbar Khan once said : "All this fusion is really CONfusion." As with other Kronos meldings, the problem is not with the performances of this extraordinary set of musicians, but with their insipid taste in composers.

Having followed (and enjoyed) many jouneys Kronos made (from their debut album onward) I started to find their more recent fare wanting of musical ideas and substance, and so I ignored many albums of theirs from the last 5 years. I listened to "Floodplain" once, and sadly that was basically enough. Maybe one or two tracks contain interesting music, but by and large I found much of it repetitive (not in a minimalist sense!) and cheesy. The worst tracks for me were those that contained strained fusions of electronic and/or contemporary ethno-kitsch with the obligatory "off pitch" wailing strings that have been done 100 times before on Western instruments. I'd think it more instructive (and pleasing) to simply go source material from any of the countries involved. This effort is neither fish nor fowl: neither wholly "authentic" as folk traditional music, nor aesthetically imaginative enough to be interesting in the string quartet field (not, as someone pointed out, one gets the sense that a string quartet is ever engaged to its full potential here).

As artists, Kronos has always impressed me. I haven't liked all the compositions they play, but they are very accomplished musicians. There are some gems on this album. I like the middle eastern influences of the album most.

In the last decade Kronos Quartet has all but given up the bold, avant-garde / contemporary classical music that first catapulted them to international attention, trading it for a never-ending tour of the world's bland musical traditions. Not to disparage all their work in this area... They've always included world music in their mix-- Pieces of Africa is one of their best albums, and Nuevo was a fun, inspired take on Mexican music. But after You've Stolen My Heart and now Floodplain, it's getting tired, and I've lost any hope of them returning to the exciting music that animated their pre-2000 efforts (maybe Joan Jeanrenaud is what's been missing). Kronos, please, find your way home again.

This and almost all of their work, is to bring you to another level of being. If you visit their website to understand where they are coming from and going, then you'll have a better view of their music. Yes it's a quartet, with other elements added to it. It's the Quartet itself that adds the soul to whatever it is they are playing. As a movement and performing artist, I must say their work is phenomenal...

This music represents such a fabulous combination of expertise, human understanding, and accomplishment. Here, witness what maturity, collaboration, and creativity bring to art. This will enchant and inspire again and again.

Very sorry to see all the single star reviews from all the suburbanites who just know Kronos from Lord of the Rings, and expect them to keep producing the same stuff over and over. Kronos is "a little more" than just being a string quartet that writes music for films. They are musicians that create music utilizing their environment(s). Welcome to Brooklyn Folks! Kronos lives and makes music in BKLN where there are different cultures... And we don't call other cultures' music "ethnic stuff" here... We embrace our people and our music. Brooklyn Represent!

there is something very wrong and disgustingly ironic and unoriginal about this album. DO NOT LISTEN!!

In some ways, the long 1-star review here is right on the money: there is a decent amount of soupy "ethnic" stuff in this album. It feels like Kronos's attitude is "ooh look how we can take traditional songs from other places and alienate them with a string quartet and weird arrangements," and apparently they expect that to be intriguing. Well in many cases it just comes across as boring and even pretentious. Most of these tracks I will probably listen to twice and then forget about them. But it's not all bad, there are some up-sides to this album. I really loved the piece by Serbian composer Alexandra Vrebalov, "...hold me, neighbor, in this storm..." Also, I literally laughed out loud when I saw that they covered a song by Ramallah Underground, because I was already familiar with this group, and a cover by Kronos Quartet was the last thing on earth that I expected. And their version of the old-time Egyptian song "Ya Habibi Ta'ala" was rather pleasant. On a more tangential note, I keep seeing this album being referred to as "politically current" or having some kind of political message. Sure, virtually all of the countries from which these pieces are derived are presently full of political controversy, but that in itself is not a political statement. A lullaby doesn't become political just because it comes from Iran. The only thing even remotely similar to a political message, at least as far as I am aware, is the track by Palestinian electronica/rap group Ramallah Underground, "Tashweesh." The burgeoning genre of Palestinian rap has so far been overwhelmingly political in its message, but that aspect is only a vague echo by the time Kronos puts their bows on it.

Surprising! Fresh. Perfect! *****