Recordings

Forgive Us For

Kronos Quartet

2025

Forgive Us For reaffirms the urgency of Kronos Quartet’s search for music that speaks unflinchingly to the human condition in all its light and darkness, hope and despair, truth and illusion. This search has led Kronos far from the string quartet’s roots in Mitteleuropa to places like Iceland, Palestine, and Ukraine—the homelands, respectively, of Hildur Guðnadóttir (b. 1982), Rim Banna (1966–2018), and Mariana Sadovska (b. 1972).

About the album

Unlike composers glossed as “nationalists” who typically draw on local folk music, history, myth, and legend to project uplifting sonic imagery of a nation’s heritage and collective identity, Guðnadóttir, Banna, and Sadovska offer a cri de cæur that calls us to bear witness to voices that have been marginalized, ignored, or silenced. These voices are not generically “national” and timeless; rather, they are tethered to specific times, places, people, and events—in Banna’s “Ya Taali’een el-Jabal” [Oh, You Who Are Going Up the Mountain], to Palestinian women singing coded messages outside a mountaintop prison where their husbands were incarcerated during the British Mandate for Palestine; in Guðnadóttir’s “Fólk Fær Andlit” [People Get Faces], to Iceland’s refusal of asylum to and late-night deportation of Albanian families with critically ill children in December of 2015, an act that provoked national outrage; and in Sadovska’s “Chernobyl. The Harvest”, to the erstwhile inhabitants of the now uninhabitable cities and villages abandoned after the 1986 nuclear reactor disaster. Though the three pieces are each bound to a place-specific trauma, their emotional force transcends borders, inviting listeners into a shared space of compassion. For Kronos, performing works that call attention to endangered peoples and cultures offers a way to advocate for them and amplify their voices. “The aim,” Banna said of “Ya Taali’een el-Jabal,” “is to bring people elsewhere closer to the music and soul of the Palestinians.”

Limited edition Vinyl and CD available for pre-order now: https://phenotypicrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/forgive-us-for

Album Credits:

Ya Taali’een el-Jabal
Traditional (Palestinian)
Arranged by Jonathan Berger

Performed by Kronos Quartet and Rim Banna
David Harrington, violin
Gabriela Díaz, violin
Ayane Kozasa, viola
Paul Wiancko, cello
Pre-recorded vocals by Rim Banna
Recorded December 18, 2024 at 25th St. Recording, Oakland, CA
Producer: Jeanne Velonis
Engineer: Zach Miley
Assistant Engineer: Karishma Kumar
Editing and Mixing: Jeanne Velonis
Translation: Shaimaa Abulebda

Fólk fær andlit
Composed by Hildur Guðnadóttir
Arranged by Kronos Quartet and Jeanne Velonis

Performed by Kronos Quartet
David Harrington, violin
Gabriela Díaz, violin
Ayane Kozasa, viola
Paul Wiancko, cello
Recorded December 20, 2024 at 25th St. Recording, Oakland, CA
Producer: Jeanne Velonis
Engineer: Zach Miley
Assistant Engineer: Karishma Kumar
Editing and Mixing: Jeanne Velonis

Chernobyl. The Harvest
Composed by Mariana Sadovska
Commissioned for the Kronos Quartet by Janet Kutulas, Peter Simcich, Shira Cion, Lessia and Rick Jarboe, and KAMENSKAKONONOVA.

Performed by Kronos Quartet and Mariana Sadovska
David Harrington, violin
John Sherba, violin
Hank Dutt, viola
Paul Wiancko, cello
Vocals and Harmonium by Mariana Sadovska
Recorded January 25, 2024 at Hyde Street Studios, San Francisco, CA
Producer: Reshena Liao
Engineer: Scott Fraser
Assistant Engineer: Eric Glauser
Editing and Mixing: Scott Fraser at Architecture
Translation: Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps

Mastering: Jeanne Velonis
Cover Art and Album Design: Ariel Aberg-Riger
Album Notes: Theodore Levin

Phenotypic Recordings
Founder & CEO: Michael Hostetler
Creative Director: Stephen Prutsman
Project Manager: Mary Paz Cubero Navarro

Kronos Performing Arts Association
Managing Director: Ann-Marie Daniels
Associate Director: Mason Dille
Manager, Artistic Operations & Touring: Jackie Power
Coordinator, Artistic Operations & Media: Graham Keeton

Ya Taali’een el-Jabal [1:58]
Traditional (Palestinian) arr. Jonathan Berger
Featuring the pre-recorded vocals of Rim Banna

Fólk fær andlit [5:12]
Hildur Guðnadóttir arr. Kronos Quartet and Jeanne Velonis

Chernobyl. The Harvest [25:07]
Mariana Sadovska
I. Doroha. (The Road) dedicated to Ludmyla Ignatenko [8:35]
II. Zhnyva. (The Harvest) [3:21]
III. Platch. Lamentation) [8:15]
IV. Rai. (Paradise) [5:05]
Mariana Sadovska, vocals & harmonium

Translations:

Traditional (Palestinian)
Ya Taali’een el-Jabal

   Oh, you who are climbing up the mountain
   Oh, you, who send a signal by setting the fire
   Between night and dawn, my soul

   Neither do I want a robe of honor
   nor do I want garments
   Between night and dawn, my soul

   Neither do I want a robe of honor
   Nor do I want a zunnar belt
   Between night and dawn, my soul

   Oh, you who are climbing up the mountain
   Oh, you, who send a signal by setting the fire
   Between night and dawn, my soul

   Except the gazelle (fedayeen) who are coming
   for the jailed inside
   Between night and dawn, my soul

   Except the gazelle (fedayeen) who are coming
   to free you
   Between night and dawn, my soul

   Oh, you who are climbing up the mountain
   Oh, you, who send a signal by setting the fire
   Between night and dawn, my soul

Translated from Arabic by Shaimaa Abulebda

Hildur Guðnadóttir
Fólk fær andlit
“People Get Faces”

Mercy
Forgive us for

Mariana Sadovska
Chernobyl.The Harvest

I. The Road. Дорога
   The widow walking through the valley,
   Sat down to rest and to feed her small child.
   Oh my son, my little one, where is your dear father?

II. The Harvest. Жнива
Spring wheat dreaming harvest dreams
So early in the morning dreaming harvest dreams

Dreaming harvest dreams
Calling to the master of the field

Oh master, brother dear
Here’s my harvest dream

Fragments of the evacuation announcements:

   “Attention, attention!
   In connection with the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plan,
   radiation conditions in the city are unfavorable…
   to ensure the complete safety of people and especially children…
   there is a need for a temporary evacuation ….
   Please remain calm and disciplined!”

III. Lamentation. Плач

She had to harvest the rye,
So she laid her babe in the field to sleep

Oh falcon, dear falcon, you fly so high
You fly so high and see so far

You fly so high and see so far
Can you can see my babe from where you are

Your babe lies by a haystack
By a haystack with his arms raised

Black birds are pecking at his side
Little black birds are pecking at his eyes

   Sleep, my baby, lullaby, lull
   Shut your little eyes
   Mama is with you
   Whispering prayers
   Sleep, my baby, lullaby, lull

IV. Paradise. Рай

Oh, Master of the House
   Paradise blossomed
   In your home
   Paradise blossomed, the Lord rejoiced
   That the son of God was born on earth
   In your yard sits a well
   Where the Mother of God bathes her Child
   But where is my son?