I’ve been listening to a lot of Zoe Keating (a cellist) and Kishi Bashi (a violinist) lately, and I want more in that same vein. I would consider it modern strings music, but I don’t have the musical vocabulary to know how to describe it.
I am explicitly looking for music that does not bring in electronic pop elements (For instance, more like Kishi Bashi’s live quartet album, not his disco-pop sounds). Keating loops her cello and that’s fine, I just don’t want electronic sounds. Not picky on the instrument.
My music streaming algorithm is terrible when it comes to anything vaguely classical and just suggests a bunch of rubbish pop song covers by pretty people holding violins. I’m sure that’s great, but does anyone have any good original strings music to recommend?
Glad to help! Not exactly what you asked for but check out Post Modern Jukebox as well. Their cover of Blue Monday using instruments available in the 30s is pretty cool.
I’ve not heard those two performers before, but a quick listen on YouTube is reminiscent of the style Elena Katz-Chernin writes in (though not only for strings).
You might also like to explore some of Arvo Pärt, say, “Spiegel im Spiegel” and “Fratres”.
Something I just heard on BBC Radio 3 : although she doesn’t write exclusively for strings, Dobrinka Tabakova’s style might be of interest too, particularly “Dawn” and “Frozen River Flows”
I got a chance to sit down and listen to Tabakova’s entire “String Paths” album and it was really perfect, thank you! I really like the sparse, melancholy feel to this kind of string music. I’ll definitely try to track down more of her work.