#kronos quartet

It was 30 years ago today: Kronos Quartet's Howl, U.S.A. was released. Kronos incorporates the recorded voices of Allen Ginsberg and Ben Johnston and samples of J. Edgar Hoover and I.F. Stone on an album the Chicago Sun-Times says is “adventurous and provocative and dances on the edge of a whole new form.” You can hear the album here.

Clint Mansell’s haunting, minimalist score for Requiem for a Dream was performed by the renowned string ensemble Kronos Quartet. The film's iconic and relentlessly driving track, "Lux Aeterna," became a massive pop culture phenomenon and is one of the most frequently licensed pieces of music for blockbuster movie trailers.

Clint Mansell’s haunting, minimalist score for Requiem for a Dream was performed by the renowned string ensemble Kronos Quartet. The film's iconic and relentlessly driving track, "Lux Aeterna," became a massive pop culture phenomenon and is one of the most frequently licensed pieces of music for blockbuster movie trailers.

It was 35 years ago: Polish composer Henryk Górecki's Nonesuch debut album was released. It pairs his first string quartet, Already It Is Dusk, written for and performed by Kronos Quartet, with his 1984 work for clarinet, cello, and piano, Lerchenmusik, performed by London Sinfonietta soloists. The former piece is "a 14-minute gem," says the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "While one can only imagine that Górecki's music comes from the heart, there is no question that it goes to the heart—and to the gut—of those who hear it." In both pieces, "it is the music's directness, not its subtlety, that makes it so winning." You can hear it here.

Release: 1985