SOUNDS OF THE FAR EAST VARIOUS CD

SKU/Barcode: 743037180924

Essentially a sampler of the various Asian albums on the ARC Music label, Sounds of the Far East makes a stab at covering the whole of Eastern Asian music. Within the space of 12 songs, Mongolia, China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and the Philippines are all given time. The album starts out in Mongolia with an improvisation on the morin khuur, the earthy sounding oversized fiddle so common in the region's music. From there, it moves into Chinese classical forms, with a nice flute work, an extremely well-known ensemble piece performed ably on konghou and pipa, and a work for the erhu, with the full range of emotion and expression calmly explored as the song goes on. A bit of Taiwanese dance music follows, followed itself by a pair of works from Korea: a basic dance involving the changgo drum and an improvisation on the komungo (a large plucked zither somewhat similar to the ajeng). As the focus moves to Japan, ARC regular Richard Stagg provides a calm work on the shakuhachi, Ayako Lister gives a small tour de force on the koto, and the Yamato Ensemble (featuring Stagg again) plays a pastoral work on the koto, shakuhachi, and a larger and deeper relative of the koto. Finishing the Japanese circuit is a piece from the wadaiko taiko ensemble, making use of a good deal of counter-work between the players, an unorthodox form taken to force a higher degree of power in the total sound of the drums. The album finishes on a small piece of kulingtang music from the Filipino Muslim traditions, similar to gamelan but rather faster in performance. The music is all quite good, performed in large part by relative unknowns on the world music market, but quite capable players nonetheless. Deeper listens in the traditions of the various pieces is always recommended to curious listeners, but this album provides a good jumping-off point for further exploration.

1. Ayaz Improvisation Egschiglen
2. Yu Ge Song Of The Fishermen Li He
3. Flowers In The Moonlight In A Spring Night On The River Pan Jing Ensemble
4. Song Of Heart Zhou Yu
5. Peacock Dance
6. Changgu Dance Dance Solo
7. San Jo Komungo Solo
8. Gekko Roteki A Flute In The Moonlight Egschiglen
9. Maritsuki Ayako Lister
10. Futatsu Noden En Shi Pt. 2 Pastoral Yamato Ensemble
11. Otoko Koko Ni Ariki This Is The Man
12. Malong Taghing Baila Fiesta Filipina