Mỹ Lai
Smithsonian Folkways, 2022
9/10
The San Francisco luminaries Kronos Quartet, i.e. David Harrington (violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and Sunny Yang (cello), align themselves with the Vietnamese multi-instrumentalist Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ, and vocalist Rinde Eckert for these compositions by Jonathan Berger (music) and Harriet Scott Chessman (libretto) that tell a powerful story about the Mỹ Lai massacre.
“Mỹ Lai Lullaby” opens the listen with the vocally expressive and musically atmospheric 8 minutes that spans minimalism and busy, cultured strings, and “First Landing: Flight” follows with soaring vocals that builds into a tense display of stirring stings and operatic singing.
At the mid-point, “First Landing: The Ditch” sprawls out across 14 minutes of sparse string manipulation that’s quite haunting before the eloquent and powerful vocals enter alongside frantic, cinematic ideas, while “Second Landing: Hovering” showcases sublime yet playful Eastern nods amid the late entry of vivid storytelling.
“Third Landing: Postcard” arrives near the end and emits a cautious, classical approach that’s full of much beauty, and “Third Landing: Finish” exits the listen with animated percussion and gentle ebbs of dreaminess that floats with subtle melody.
For 48 years now, the Kronos Quartet have consistently released imaginative and artistic music that rewrites the string quartet experience, and this substantial body of work is no different in that respect, thankfully.
Travels well with: The Riley- Way Out Yonder; Clint Mansell- Stoker