Kronos Quartet, Kimmo Pohjonen, Samuli Kosminen - UNIKO (2011)

Posted By: Designol

Date: 10 Apr 2022 07:58:42

UNIKO features the Grammy winning Kronos Quartet together with a Finnish duo, accordion adventurer Kimmo Pohjonen and sampling guru Samuli Kosminen. Produced by Iceland's Valgeir Sigurosson, known for his collaboration with Bjork, this album was recorded at Avatar Studios in NYC. UNIKO was commissioned by Kronos in 2003 and premiered live at the Helsinki Festival in 2004. It has subsequently drawn sellout audiences in Moscow, Molde (Norway), and New York at the 2007 BAM NEXT WAVE Festival. UNIKO is highlighted by Pohjonen's electrified and MIDI-fied accordion with Kosminen's electronic percussion devices which reproduce his own accordion samples and his samples of Kronos' instruments. These samples, together with live strings and electric accordion plus effects and manipulations create a new, multi-dimensional sound world.

The Kronos Quartet has long been known for collaborating with other musicians and artists on their performances and albums. In Uniko, it is joined by Finnish musicians Kimmo Pohjonen and Samuli Kosminen, who both composed the music and are active as performers, Pohjonen on accordion and vocals and Kosminen in processing and programming string and accordion samples. In terms of its aesthetic, this album continues a tradition of integrating technology that goes back as far as John Zorn's Forbidden Fruit from 1987, and to pieces that evoke deep sadness with the flavor of Eastern European and Near and Middle Eastern traditions dating back to István Márta's disturbing Doom. A Sigh from 1989. Technology is even more of a presence here than in most of its earlier albums. Kosminen's manipulations of the samples are present throughout almost all of the tracks, adding a layer of mystery, sometimes melancholy and sometimes sinister, to the acoustic sound of the quartet. In some movements the processed elements take over with a dominating, driving beat. The piece also leaves considerable room for improvisation, and violinist David Harrington in particular is given a chance to shine in the fifth movement, "Kamala." The music may not have the tight economy of pieces from the Kronos' earlier albums, but it is mournfully eloquent and always compelling. The quartet, as always, plays with great energy and panache, throwing itself wholeheartedly into the music. Ondine's sound is clean, well defined, and nicely ambient.

Review by Stephen Eddins, Allmusic.com

Kronos Quartet at Allmusic
Kronos Quartet at Wiki

Kimmo Pohjonen at Allmusic
Kimmo Pohjonen at Wiki

Tracklist:

01. I Utu (06:58)
02. II Plasma (06:15)
03. III Sarma (05:34)
04. IV Kalma (11:00)
05. V Kamala (05:38)
06. VI Emo (10:19)
07. VII Avara (06:00)

EAC log

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 2 from 29. April 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 7. September 2011, 23:26

Kronos Quartet, K. Pohjonen, S. Kosminen / Uniko

Used drive : ASUS DRW-24B1ST Adapter: 2 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 128 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : Yes
Command line compressor : G:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "Date=%year%" -T "Genre=%genre%" %source%

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 6:58.42 | 0 | 31391
2 | 6:58.42 | 6:15.63 | 31392 | 59579
3 | 13:14.30 | 5:34.15 | 59580 | 84644
4 | 18:48.45 | 11:00.43 | 84645 | 134187
5 | 29:49.13 | 5:38.07 | 134188 | 159544
6 | 35:27.20 | 10:19.34 | 159545 | 206003
7 | 45:46.54 | 6:00.58 | 206004 | 233061

Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename F:\Instrumental\Uniko - Kronos Quartet, Pohjonen, Kosminen\Kronos Quartet, K. Pohjonen, S. Kosminen - Uniko.wav

Peak level 98.7 %
Extraction speed 5.7 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC A94AF2F9
Copy CRC A94AF2F9
Copy OK

No errors occurred

AccurateRip summary

Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [FAA1B1EF] (AR v2)
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [9BC7D30B] (AR v2)
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [C044F315] (AR v2)
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [9AD5F001] (AR v2)
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [57AC7990] (AR v2)
Track 6 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [E66ABEC8] (AR v2)
Track 7 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [9CA6D996] (AR v2)

All tracks accurately ripped

End of status report

==== Log checksum 04CE49E09400E83D3D5CD8859F0402A894216EEC0990822A8CA8F3C85F971DA9 ====

DR log

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2015-08-14 12:49:09

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Kronos Quartet, K. Pohjonen, S. Kosminen / Uniko
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR10 -0.11 dB -15.20 dB 6:59 01-I Utu
DR9 -0.11 dB -13.72 dB 6:16 02-II Plasma
DR10 -0.11 dB -14.49 dB 5:34 03-III Sarma
DR8 -0.11 dB -13.20 dB 11:01 04-IV Kalma
DR10 -0.11 dB -15.03 dB 5:38 05-V Kamala
DR8 -0.11 dB -12.79 dB 10:19 06-VI Emo
DR9 -0.11 dB -14.68 dB 6:01 07-VII Avara
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 7
Official DR value: DR9

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 772 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

All thanks to original releaser - Keikobad

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