Nonesuch
2009
Various Composers
Floodplain
About This Album
The Kronos Quartet continues to broaden the repertoire for string quartet beyond the Western European tradition with Floodplain, an album of music all written or arranged for the ensemble. This album moves the ensemble even further afield from the conventional quartet; the players frequently double on folk instruments, and in one of the pieces they don't use their own instruments at all, but newly invented ones, created especially for this album. The selection of music is broadly eclectic and includes arrangements of a popular Arab song from 1940 and an ancient Christian hymn from Lebanon, a collaboration with a Palestinian electronic ensemble, and an original piece by a Serbian-American composer. The album has a number of guest artists, including the Azerbaijani Alim Qasimov Ensemble, Terry Riley playing tambura and Wu Man playing electric sitar.

The title, Floodplain, refers to the cultures situated around the kinds of river environments where civilization began, but which in recent history have become either marginalized into poverty or have become the loci of debilitating political turmoil, including the present day Iran, Iraq, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Israel, and North India. Not surprisingly, the pieces are almost universally soulful, and often wrenchingly poignant.
Track List

Midhat Assem Ya Habibi Ta'ala (My Love, Come Quickly)
1.
Traditional, Lebanesel Wa Habibi (Beloved)
3.
Said Rustamov Getme, Getme (Don't Leave, Don't Leave)
4.
Ram Narayan Raga Mishra Bhairavi
5.
Unspecified Oh Mother, The Handsome Man Tortures Me
6.
Rahman Asadollahi Mugam Beyati Shiraz
7.
Iranian Traditional Lullaby
8.
Tanburi Cemil Bey Nihavent Sirto
9.
Kuat Shildebaev Kara Kemir
10.
Aleksandra Vrebalov ...Hold Me, Neighbor, In This Storm..., For String Quartet
12.