Xploding Plastix working with the Kronos Quartet
San Francisco based Kronos Quartet has earlier worked with Radiohead and Sigur Rós, but now they have turned their attention to Norwegian electronica duo Xploding Plastix. The duo will remix sound material from the quartet, and hopefully perform the new music with Kronos in 2005.
“They had heard More Power to You, a song from our first album at a compilation, and really liked it. Kronos contacted us, and we met in London. We played some of our material and they asked us to contribute on this project,” Jens Petter Nilsen says, one half of the duo. The other half is Hallvard Wennersberg Hagen.
Xploding Plastix was originally asked to compose one or two pieces for the world-renowned quartet of contemporary music. Now, the plan has changed a bit. The electronica duo has received a sound library of the four instruments in the quartet, which will be digitalized, resampled and composed into one piece.
“We have started this project with a solid portion of respect. We’ve got sounds, not music from them. And it may be an advantage that neither Halvor nor I play the viola violin, so we don’t know its limits, says Nilsen, who has background as a philosophy student and a computer programmer, as well as a successful electronica artist.
The Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco. The organisation's artistic mission is to present and promote contemporary music and expand the repertoire for string quartet. Kronos commissions about a dozen new works each season and performs more than 100 concerts a year. Among their recordings is the soundtrack to Requiem for a Dream, At the Grave of Richard Wagner, Monk Suite – Kronos Quartet plays the music of Thelonious Monk, as well as contributing to Radiohead and Sigur Rós’ records.
Xploding Plastix debuted with the massively acclaimed album Amateur Girlfriends GO Proskirt Agents released on Beatservice Records in 2001. The duo’s second album, The Donca Matic Singalong (Sony Music) is expected to be released in Europe and USA in April. Check out our calendar to find out if the two xploding electronica guys are playing in your city soon.
Headlines:
Himmelkvad
Celebrated vocal ensemble Nordic Voices is currently out on its promo tour for their new outing ‘Himmelkvad’, a critically acclaimed album presenting Norwegian composer Lasse Thoresen’s unique vocal universe. MIC Norway takes a closer look at the cutting-edge vocal ensemble and ground-breaking composer.
I was the devil in my younger years
Late Feb sees Enslaved heading out on a month-long European tour. MIC Norway hooked up with Enslaved’s Ivar Peersen to talk about musical cross pollination, inspirational sources, humour and his fascination for singer-songwriter Stein Torleif Bjella.
