STEVE REICH AND TECHNOLOGY

"We took 8 or 9 hours per day for 9 days to record Different Trains, definitely one of the hardest things we've ever done. But it opened us up to a whole new world of sound." —DH


Winner of the Grammy Award for Best Composition of 1990, Steve Reich's Different Trains represented a musical, emotional, and technological breakthrough for Kronos. Layers of quartets blended with layers of voices in an evocation of America and Europe in the 1940s. Despite its demands, the work was so strong Kronos took it on tour. Soon it became clear that for the piece to achieve its full effect, a sound engineer was essential. Around the same time, Kronos produced its first staged concert, Live Video, designed by Larry Neff. This opened up a world of visual possibilities for many new works, including lighting and other dramatic devices. By 1991, Kronos had hired a two-man road team—unheard of in classical music—that enabled them to expand the musical and dramatic spectrum of the Quartet in a wide range of venues. In addition, composers writing new works for Kronos could create prerecorded sound tracks to be integrated into touring performances, and some commissions began to call for fully stageable works.

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