David Dalle
Thursday July 17th, 2025 with David Dalle
A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall: Kronos Quartet with an astonishing guest list; Terry Riley; Bartok; music to sear your soul, and maybe save it.
Kronos Quartet just released a new EP yesterday to mark the 80th anniversary of the Trinity test, the moment humanity entered a new, terrifying era, harnessing the destructive power of nuclear weapons. This EP features two incredible versions of Bob Dylan's 1962 song "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall". The first is a sung version collaborating with an astonishing list of singers who take turns singing lines from the song. The second version is a spoken word version with another astonishing list of speakers (some are in both versions). The Quartet are joined by several other musicians, including Suhail Yusuf Khan on sarangi, harmonium, percussion, a few other instruments, as well as a small choir and Shahzad Ismaily on the second version. Both versions are striking, searing, apocalyptic, magnificent. The two versions will bookend a set of fitting music.
The singers in order of appearance:
Allison Russell
Iggy Pop
Satomi Matsuzaki
Stephin Merritt
Tanya Tagaq
Dai Wei
Gustavo Santaolalla
Laurie Anderson
Asha Bhosle
Slowspin
Zanai Bhosle
Peni Candra Rini
Sara Parkman
Lollise
Willie Nelson
The readers in order of appearance:
Ocean Vuong
Sampa The Great
Dai Wei
Sleaford Mods
Nadya Tolokonnikova / Pussy Riot
Satomi Matsuzaki
Iggy Pop
Tom Morello
Stephin Merritt
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Willie Nelson
Laurie Anderson
Mahsa Vahdat
Fenway
Ringo Starr
| The Kronos EP is available digitally only, through Bandcamp.
https://redhot.bandcamp.com/album/kronos-quartet-the-hard-rain-collective-ep |
| Hard Rain Kronos Quartet and the Hard Rain Collective - Hard Rain - Red Hot Org 
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| Brilliant Iraqi oud player Naseer Shamma wrote and performed this tribute to the victims of the US bombing of the Al-Amiriyya shelter in the first Gulf war, killing more than 400, mostly women and children. In this recording he performed live at the memorial at the site of the shelter on the first anniversary, in 1992. It demonstrates the incredible virtuosity and expressivity of the Oud in "music [which] expresses several things at once - it is a cry of revolt against savagery and barbarity, a hymn to innocence, a lamentation expressing distress and deep sadness, and a set of prayers that there might still be hope in life". It is so painful that thousands more children were to die from bombings in the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and today in the genocide in Gaza. Hope seems remote. A hard rain is gonna fall. |
| Al-Amiriyya Naseer Shamma - Le luth de Bagdad - Institut du Monde Arabe |
| Aboubakrin Salif Keita - So Kono - No Format |
| Kelmti Horra Emel Mathlouthi - Kelmti Horra - World Village |
| The B side features a birthday present for Terry Riley who turned 90 on June 24th. He sings a short Raga with his student, Sara Miyamoto. On top of his many musical activities in composition and performance, Terry Riley has spent decades mastering Indian classical music, including 15 years with his teacher Pandit Pran Nath. |
| Rag Komal Reshab Asavari Terry Riley and Sara Miyamoto - Hard Rain - Red Hot Org
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| Manaqib Ali Abida Parveen - Fez Festival of World Sacred Music - Le Chant du Monde |
| Juggernaut (feat. Kushal Gaya) Sarathy Korwar - Otherland - The Leaf Label |
| Hard Rain (drone) Kronos Quartet and the Hard Rain Collective - Hard Rain - Red Hot Org
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| This past week I had an odd dream which featured Bartok's "Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion, and Orchestra". I dreamt one of the percussionists was trying to set up his large collection of instruments in my closet, which was a very tight fit (don't ask me where the two pianos and orchestra were supposed to go). Bartok originally composed this work as a sonata for two pianists and two percussionists in 1937, and, at a suggestion from his publisher, he arranged it for orchestra. The parts for the two pianists and percussionists are virtually the same. Bartok and his second wife gave a performance in 1943, Bartok's final appearance as a performer. I am more familiar with the sonata version, and have not listened to the concerto version in several decades, but, by luck, a terrific recording is included in the Boulez the Conductor box set which came out this year to celebrate his 100th birthday and so we'll listen to it today, courtesy of my bizarre dreams. |
| Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion, and Orchestra Bela Bartok/Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Tamara Stefanovich, Neil Percy, Nigel Thomas, London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Boulez - Boulez the Conductor Vol. 6 - Deutsche Grammophon |
| Lila Bambo Trio Da Kali and Kronos Quartet - Ladilikan - World Circuit |
| Kene Bo Trio Da Kali and Kronos Quartet - Ladilikan - World Circuit |
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2:02 PM, July 17th, 2025