BOND

Bond or BOND (formerly often typeset as bond in deference to the owners of the 007 trademark) is an Australian/British string quartet that specialises in classical crossover and synth-pop music. The quartet has sold five million albums. Creation Bond was formed following initial conversations between Vanessa-Mae composer and record producer Mike Batt and her manager, promoter Mel Bush, after Batt suggested to Bush that the two of them should put together a quartet consisting of "four beautiful, talented musicians" Auditions were held at Baden Powell House in London, and violinist (Eos) and Cellist (Gay Yee) and a viola player were "cast" at that point, using as an audition piece "Contradanza" that Batt had written for Vanessa Mae. It was agreed between them that all was then required was to find the ideal first violinist. Some time later, Bush pushed ahead without Batt, recruiting Batt's former engineer Gareth Cousins. This resulted in an initial four recordings the band made, leading to Bond being signed by Decca. Three of those original recordings, "Duel", "The 1812" and "Dalalai", were the backbone of the first album, Born, with producer Magnus Fiennes providing additional tracks and Mike Batt adding a re-arrangement and remix of "Victory", which became the first single. The quartet currently consists of Tania Davis (first violin, formerly viola, from Sydney, Australia), Eos Counsell (second violin, from Cardiff, Wales), Elspeth Hanson (viola, from Upper Basildon, England) and Gay-Yee Westerhoff (cello, from Hull, England). Hanson replaced original band member Haylie Ecker (formerly first violin and from Perth, Australia), who left in 2008 to have a child. Genre and success Their début album Born was removed from the UK classical chart, apparently owing to its "sounding too much like pop music"". Born later rose to #1 on 21 charts around the world. Shine, their second album, went gold in six countries. Remixed featured remixes from their first two albums as well as three new pieces. Their third studio album Classified went double platinum in Australia, reaching the number one spot on both the classical and pop charts. Explosive: The Best of Bond is a "Best of" that, again, included three unreleased pieces.