Kronos Quartet violinist David Harrington is a music geek. Always has been. Probably always will be.

That's hardly a surprise, considering he's the lead musical mind behind a groundbreaking Grammy-winning string quartet known for eschewing Schubert and Haydn in favor of collaborations with the likes of the Dave Matthews Band, John Cage, Philip Glass and Nelly Furtado, among others. But listening to Harrington speak rapturously about a CD store, it was clear all comers would be mere music geek Kwai Chang Caine to his Master Po.

"Our office is about five blocks away from the largest CD shop in the area, called Amoeba Music. And Amoeba rocks! It's incredible!" said Harrington, phoning from said Kronos office/rehearsal space in the San Francisco bay area last week. "You've probably read stories about the Library of Alexandria in ancient Egypt; it was supposed to be the library that had everything in it?

"Well, that's what Amoeba feels like. It's like this vast library of human (music) knowledge. ... Basically, I can go over there every day if I want to."

So do you?

"Yes. Quite often."

Were you there today?

"Not yet. But I'm finishing up here at 4 and it stays open 'til 11, so ..."

It was 3:30 p.m.

GENRE HOPPING

Harrington and his cohorts in the Kronos Quartet return for their first Honolulu performance in seven years and change, Saturday at Orvis Auditorium. The diverse Harrington-selected program is classic Kronos.

There are a couple of pieces from the quartet's 2005 Grammy-nominated CD, "You've Stolen My Heart," a joyously spicy masala of works from prolific Bollywood composer R.D. Burman's 300-film score oeuvre. The Orvis program will also feature selections written specifically for Kronos by Azerbaijani composer Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, minimalist pioneer Steve Reich and obscure Norwegian electronic lounge duo Xploding Plastix.

For good measure, Harrington has even tossed a Kronos arrangement of Sigur Ros' "Flugufrelsarinn (The Fly Freer)" into the mix.

The other members of Kronos are violinist John Sherba, violist Hank Dutt and cellist Jeffrey Zeigler.

ANGELS OF WAR

Harrington formed Kronos in 1973, frustrated with the musical options open to him as a classically trained violinist, and moved by composer George Crumb's avant-garde Vietnam-Warinspired piece "Black Angels."

"All of a sudden, the Beethovens and the Mozarts and all of the Dvoráks didn't make it for me. I had grown up with that music ... (but) there was a kind of split in my life at that point," said Harrington. "The Vietnam War was going on. It was in everybody's living room. There were thousands of people dying in this horrible situation."

"Black Angels," with its judicious use of diverse sonic effects to evoke a surreal soundtrack of war, gave voice to Harrington's rage.

"I decided at that point that I would spend the rest of my life trying to find music that felt right to play, at any point," said Harrington. At the time, " 'Black Angels' was that piece. And in order to play that piece, I had to start Kronos."

Kronos' penchant for musical genre-hopping has attracted dozens of collaborators and blown away many preconceptions of what a string quartet was capable of.

The quartet has taken on Mexican folk, Romanian Gypsy music and Argentine tango. It has re-worked Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk and even Jimi Hendrix's Woodstock-closing version of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Composer Tan Dun and Davids Byrne and Bowie are collaborators and longtime fans.

The quartet has commissioned more than 450 pieces in its career, and claims more than 600 compositions in its repertoire.

Harrington's mailbox is always filled with CDs from composers hoping Kronos will record their pieces or commission more work.

"I'm right now looking at six ... no, wait, nine boxes of submissions," said Harrington. "And that's very important. It's the way we stay in touch with what people are doing."

Harrington listens to everything sent to him.

"I try to keep my ears open all day and all night," said Harrington, answering a query about his music-listening habits. "When somebody speaks to me passionately about music — whether they really hate it or really like it — I will always look into it."

OLD-SCHOOL SPIN

Harrington has so far resisted joining the iPod generation. The reason is sort of anti-music geek.

He fears the endless days he'd likely spend on his computer downloading songs into it. Instead, he carries a portable CD player everywhere. On tour with Kronos, he totes a suitcase full of CDs.

Some of his latest acquisitions?

"When you called just now, I was listening to a piece somebody gave me from a young Israeli composer that I'd never heard before, Amos Elkana," said Harrington.

Also on Harrington's CD player: a Finnish singer/composer whose name he couldn't immediately recall, Gorillaz' "Demon Days" and a new work by Alexandra du Bois, 2003 recipient of Kronos' first Under 30 Project commission for young composers.

Commenting on near-term Kronos projects, Harrington said, "We did a performance with Tom Waits a few years ago and several of those songs ... are going to come out on record pretty soon. There's a quality to the music of Tom Waits that just demands that Kronos be there with his voice and sensibility."

Looking further ahead, Harrington said he is eager to explore Middle Eastern music styles with Kronos.

"I find that I'm incredibly ignorant about so much music in the Arab world, so I'm trying to change that and learn," said Harrington.

Asked if the music of Hawai'i might inspire a future Kronos project, Harrington confessed his visit here would also include some casual study. He has a substantial Hawaiian music collection already, rich with vintage traditional vocal, territorial band and ki ho'alu music.

"Do you know the Kalamas Quartet, out of the 1930s?" asked Harrington. "They were one of the sweetest-sounding groups in the universe. Not only did they sing beautifully, but they also played instruments as an octet.

"There were several years where I was carrying around their album with me everywhere I went. Oh, God, their music is just unbelievable!"

Spoken like a true music geek.

Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com.