manifesto
In the next five years Strange Attractors Records will commission and release 50 songs for the love of the biosphere.
Each commission will be based on a new and unpredictable collaboration — a strange attractor.
who are we?
Strange Attractors Records is a collaboration between Owen Gaffney, Per Olsson and the Kronos Quartet.
Established June 2025. Based in Stockholm.
Strange products
Strange #1 Kronos Quartet, Andri Snaer Magnason, Sara Parkman, Sverker Sörlin. 10 May 2025 ReaktorHallen, Stockholm.
Strange #2 Kronos Quartet, Andri Snaer Magnason, Sara Parkman. 11 May 2025 Nalen, Stockholm.
Strange #3 Merch (T-shirts, sustainably sourced). July 2025,
Strange #4 UChicago, Nobel Laureate Assembly. Kronos Quartet and Allison Russell. 16 July 2025 Logan Theater,
Strange #5 Hard Rain EP — Kronos Quartet, Terry Riley and the Hard Rain Collective. 16 July 2025
Strange #6 Common Humanity Workshop @ Stockholm Resilience Centre. 2 December 2025,
Strange #7 Kronos Quartet announced as first “Artists in Residence” at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. January 2026.
Strange #8. Requiem for Extinct Species workshop, Hamburg. Olga Tokarczuk, Tanya Tagaq, Sara Parkman, Hampus Norén. February 2026.
Strange #9 Peni Candra Rini and Andy McGraw, Reaktorhallen concert, Saturday 16 May 2026.
What is a “strange attractor”?
Most people have heard of the “butterfly effect” where a tiny change can have a big impact. The flap of a butterfly’s wings might determine whether a hurricane grows or shrinks. Systems that are extremely sensitive to initial conditions are described by mathematical equations known as “strange attractors”. The butterfly effect is described mathematically by a special type of strange attractor: the Lorenz attractor. We hope our small experiments to bring two worlds together will lead to big, unexpected changes.
Our story
Per Olsson is deputy science director at the Stockholm Resilience Centre and one of the world’s leading academics in transformation research.
Owen Gaffney is a writer, academic, producer, social entrepreneur and anthronaut.
Contact us
We want to work with bands and composers who love our biosphere. Drop us a line.