Women of the World

A selection for KRONOS for the Future

ALEXANDRA DU BOIS
Behind Rainbows (2019)

“Grief is like a kaleidoscope. Behind rainbows are stories of shadows and downpours of sorts, even death. Colors always emerge. Light both follows and precedes one. Perception of sound is not unlike color. Grief is like a kaleidoscope; it is always changing. Like joy, a rainbow, a memory, of what passed before its color.”

 
ARUNA NARAYAN
Mishra Pilu (2020)

Mishra Pilu consists of an Aalap section and a Bandish section:
The Aalap is free and unmetered, with a melody line that passes through the quartet while the other voices add in their own improvisatory echoes as they wish.
The Bandish is metered with a rhythmic accompaniment provided by the cello.

 
JLIN
Little Black Book (2018)

“I chose the name Little Black Book because there is a black notebook that I own that I literally write down every creative idea I have in it. It is my book of absolute freedom. The book is very special to me, as it was given to me on my twenty-first birthday by my eldest cousin. When Kronos approached me about doing this project I was quite ecstatic, and immediately knew I wanted to take this on from a perspective of absolute freedom of sound. I didn’t care how crazy it sounded, I just wanted the instruments and choice of instruments to be free. Freedom was my goal no matter how left-field or unconventional.”

Jlin, one of the most prominent electronic producers of the current generation, first appeared on Planet Mu’s second Bangs & Works compilation, which had a huge impact on electronic/club music. Though she is known for bringing footwork to a wider audience, Jlin doesn’t consider herself a footwork artist. Hailing from Gary, Indiana, a place close yet distant enough from Chicago to allow her to develop a different perspective on the genre, she has morphed its sounds into something entirely new.

 
SOO YEON LYUH
Yessori (Sound from the Past) (2016)

“I was commissioned to write a piece that explores aspects of Korean traditional music. So I composed this piece and named it Yessori (옛소리), which means ‘sound from the past’ in Korean. I first got used to playing the piano and violin. So later when I encountered Korean traditional music, its relative pitch relationships and fluid rhythmic cycles felt completely new. But these strange yet beautiful qualities grew on me in the past two decades I fell in love with a two-stringed bowed instrument called ‘haegeum.’ Yessori is my way of sharing this experience with the broadest possible audience.”

SUSIE IBARRA
Pulsation (2018)

“Pulsation, like a pulse in the human body, is written with a continuous rhythm beating throughout the music, which flows through different pathways and patterns. Some beat patterns are inspired by pulsating signaling language from Philippine kulintang gong rhythmic modes. These are pulses that are beats of communication. Some of these patterns cross rhythms, changing how it feels, such as when a person experiences playing or listening to a polyrhythm. If we sit in these cross rhythms and listen to the shifts as it is played, our sense and perspective can shift where beginnings and ends are, and we can shift our sense of hearing multiple rhythms. Some of the patterns are unisons, emphasizing syncopated rhythm and melody.
“Pulsation moves continuously and shifts. It can be perceived as a line and a circle. The performers are also able to interchange or change the order of the sections, making it possible to start in various places and decide to end in another. There are also moments when a performer may improvise within certain rhythmic cycles of a sections.”