Kronos Quartet and its artistic director/founding violinist David Harrington have long been known as interpreters of music from around the world, expanding the string quartet repertoire with works from across genres. Nonesuch, the Quartet's longtime label, celebrates this remarkable curiosity in the group's 40th anniversary year with two releases: the Kronos Explorer Series five-CD box set and a new album for 2014, A Thousand Thoughts.
A Thousand Thoughts is a look at Kronos' geographically wide-ranging sources. It features music from 14 different countries, including China, India, Sweden, and Vietnam. The album includes the four cellists who have been in Kronos Quartet over the last 36 years: Joan Jeanrenaud (1978-1999), Jennifer Culp (1999-2005), Jeffrey Zeigler (2005-2013), and Sunny Yang (2013-present). Ten of the album's 15 pieces are previously unreleased.