Hiromi Ohta

Winter Was Hard is a fairly typical early mélange type recording by Kronos, mixing in au courant contemporary fare with a downtown edge and 20th century classics. Of the former, John Zorn's "Forbidden Fruit" (originally available on his album Spillane) is the standout composition, one of the very best pieces he ever wrote in this idiom. Mixing the string quartet with turntablist Christian Marclay's wild thrashings and vocalist Ohta Hiromi's intensely erotic whisperings was an inspired move.