The Kronos’s most potent sorties came in a series of densely atmospheric pieces in this Ramadan Nights performance
Clive Davis / Timesonline
Here we were, bags packed, maps crumpled, waiting for another journey to an unknown destination. The Kronos Quartet has always displayed an appetite for the unorthodox, so it made perfect sense to mount the collaboration with Azerbaijan’s master singer, Alim Qasimov, during the Ramadan Nights season.
In the end the encounter, funded by the Aga Khan Music Initiative, never quite shook off the ambience of a work-in-progress. As in the meeting with Asha Bhosle, the Indian playback singer, David Harrington and his colleagues are groping towards a new vocabulary, attempting to fuse what Bobby McFerrin has called “paper music” with the free-flowing forms of non-Western traditions.
Earlier related: Agony and Ecstasy – The Kronos Quartet and Alim Qasimov Ensemble
Alim Qasimov: the living legend you’ve never heard of | Timesonline
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