Kronos Quartet's latest Nonesuch release, Floodplain, which was recently included among the Best of the Year list from the Times of London, has now been named one of the Ten Best Albums of 2009 by Songlines magazine.

"There are few musicians on earth that encompass a range of music like Kronos Quartet," says Songlines. The magazine cites the group's "mastery of classical string playing" married with "engagement with traditional sounds and contemporary geo-politics" that has served Kronos so well throughout its career and, no, on Floodplain. "Most spectacular," says Songlines' eidtor-in-chief Simon Broughton, "is the mugam performance with Azerbaijan's most spiritual singer Alim Qasimov and his daughter Fargana—the first live recording Kronos have ever released."

You can access Songlines Digital and learn more about the latest print issue, out today, in which the Top Ten list appears, at songlines.co.uk. Included with the January/February 2010 issue is Songlines' regular compilation CD featuring tracks from its ten Top of the World albums, plus a guest playlist by Channel 4 newscaster Jon Snow featuring David Byrne & Brian Eno and Orchestra Baobab, among others.

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Having completed its multi-concert participation in the John Adams-curated West Coast, Left Coast festival with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Kronos has a special reunion of sorts ahead this weekend. The group welcomes the return of its former cellist, Joan Jeanrenaud, for the world-premiere performance of Vladimir Martynov's Schubert-Quintet (Unfinished) at the University of California, Berkeley's Hertz Hall on Sunday. Also on the program are Bryce Dessner's Aheym (Homeward), Missy Mazzoli's Harp and Altar, and the West Coast premiere of Terry Riley's Transylvanian Horn Courtship. For more information on this sold-out event, visit calperfs.berkeley.edu.