The Kronos Quartet has long been classical in format only — recent projects have included work with Café Tacuba, Taraf de Haïdouks, and the Tiger Lillies. Yet the new Kronos CD, a collaboration with Bollywood singer Asha Bhosle, still crosses into surprising, unexplored territory for the group. Rather than documenting four string players working with Bhosle and Zakir Hussain, You've Stolen My Heart is a multi-tracked confection, a full-on pop production made via countless overdubs, oddly manipulated sounds coaxed from standard instruments, standard sounds from odd instruments, and numerous found or even unidentifiable sounds. The occasion is a celebration of the prolific Bollywood music director R.D. Burman (1939–1994), creator of some of the greatest hits from the golden age of “filmi” music. And though Kronos director/first violinist David Harrington has said of Burman, “as an orchestrator he’s as good as Stravinsky or Debussy or Duke Ellington,” he could just as easily have compared him to pop innovators Joe Meek, Phil Spector, and Brian Wilson. Working with Burman’s music certainly pushed Kronos in that direction.
Kronos Quartet + Asha Bhosle | April 9 | Berklee Performance Center, 136 Mass Ave, Boston | 617.931.2000
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Kronos Quartet: http://kronosquartet.org/
