For Kronos Quartet's "Adrift," I designed a video in collaboration with director Braden King and composer Van-Anh Vo. Inspired by the Vietnamese idiom “Ba chìm, bảy nổi, chín lênh đênh,” the piece explores the ebb and flow of life, using traditional and contemporary visual elements to convey resilience and adaptation.
Made for remote performance during the pandemic, the video layers the individual silhouettes of the quartet performing the piece, overlaying the gentle reeds and waves of the Vietnamese River, a beautiful expression of the strange time during which the quartet could not play together. This technique seamlessly integrates the music with visuals, enhancing the depiction of life's fluidity and the strength to navigate its uncertainties—fading in and out—adrift—in isolation.
In the words of the composer Van-Anh Vo:
“Our grandparents taught us that, in the river of life, if you can survive three rounds of drowning, seven rounds of floating, and nine rounds of staying adrift, nothing can kill you and you will be powerful in your mind, your will, and your heart. This idiom has been helping me to survive during this time when everything is seemingly frozen and we are all restricted, to be in a state of mind where resilience has shown to be the most important thing, so I can share my music and passions again.
The left-hand techniques - the soul of Vietnamese traditional music - on dan Bau in this piece have been reflected in the string quartet's parts as the players follow each other's footsteps. On the other hand, dan Bau adapts the bowing technique from the quartet to be one step closer to being harmonized in sound and feel. The cello plays the role of filler throughout the piece, almost like a person paddling in a boat to get us further.
“Adrift” was written especially for our current circumstances, where we cannot perform together live. Instead of combatting the woes of network latency, I've decided to embrace it by writing this piece in such a way where we "float" around the notes, drifting through the bars of music together, and with the concept of time signature founded on the feelings of the musicians and their own adaptations. This flexibility to drift together with our partners creates the strength we need to keep evolving.”