Zeena Parkins

Composer, electric harpist and multi-instrumentalist Zeena Parkins speaks with AIR's David Weinstein upon the release of Phantom Orchard, a double album with Ikue Mori. Parkins has established herself as a pioneering electric harpist and improviser, working within such genres as jazz and rock as well as more avant-garde styles. She has collaborated with such musicians as Björk, Nels Cline, Christian Marclay, Pauline Oliveros, Yoko Ono, Elliott Sharp and John Zorn, among a near-innumerable, impossibly venerated many more. She discusses the album, her history with the electric harp, the importance of string instruments to her--with the absolute exception of violin and guitar—and a then—unnamable, recently received award (50 minutes).

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