The music of Ancient and Medieval Ireland has been all but lost except for a few strange and beautiful fragments. The idea of ANÚNA grew from their founder and director Michael McGlynn's exploration of this music which is at the very root of the Celtic world, both past and present. The soundworld created by ANÚNA breaks down the thin barriers between the spiritual and the secular, and has created a unique and haunting form that has put the group at the forefront of thc new-age of Irish and world music.
The name ANÚNA is derived from the Irish An Uaithne, which is the collective name of the three ancient types of Irish music, Suantraí (lullaby), Geantraí (happy song) and Goltraí (lament).

Of all the music associated with Ireland, the airy and sophisticated sound of the harp most evokes the spirit of that place. The power and beauty of traditional Irish music lies “in the tune itself”, and the pure melody is brought to life through the skill and soul of the performer…
These are not all Irish tunes, but the pieces from England, Wales, and Scotland are rich in Gaelic flavor and were all composed on Irish themes. This is heavenly music played by capable hands that will change your outlook on the world on any given day. Surprising it would be if any hearing this didn’t search out more of Carol Thompson’s harp music, which speaks to the Irish in all of us. The fidelity of the recording is worthy of additional comment. Utilizing the fabled acoustics of the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, the engineer’s intent was to give the illusion of each note hovering in a vast space before dying away into complete stillness, all to evoke an image of Carolan composing these tunes at a roadside under the open skies. – Barbara Flaska

"This program is unique on CD, illustrating the art of padam by perhaps its leading contemporary practitioner. Aruna Sayeeram is a student of the late T. Brinda, the acknowledged master performer of padam.
Sound quality: superlative"

medieval.org

The development of koto music was one of Japan's most valuable contributions to the history of classical music. Some scholars trace the instrument back to the 8th Century or earlier but koto music became firmly established in the 16th Century, and the present-day 13-stringed instrument and the music written for it are inherited from that time. Originally a court instrument, the koto with its harplike sound became a symbol of gentility and good taste in the home. Playing the Koto well is an accomplishment that enhances the marital prospects of well-bred Japanese girls. Three schools were established among koto musicians from the 17th to the 19th Centuries. The traditions of each school (ryu) exist today. They are the Yatsuhashi-ryu, Ikuta-ryu and Yamada-ryu. Each school used differently shaped finger picks, thereby producing different sounds and techniques. For example, musicians of the lkuta-ryu who made this recording use square picks and play a koto that is longer than the usual six foot size..

… La música "seria", logia o kosmiki, se desarrolló sobre todo en Constantinopla, centro de las artes de todo el Oriente desde su fundación hasto principios de nuestro siglo, asi como en las grandes ciudades (Esmirna, Giannena, etc), alrededor del palacio de los emperadores bizantinos. Con la caída de Constantinopla, continuó desarrollándose durante el Imperio Otomano con nuevas influencias turcas, persas y árabes, llegando a su máximo esplendor en la época comprendida entre 1700 y 1923, año en el que se desintegró el Imperio. Esta música comprende obras maravillosas compuestas por griegos, turcos, armenios, judíos, etc., que crearon así una enorme tradición multicolor de música logia que se conoce como "música clásica otomana".
A partir de la desintegración del Imperio Otomano, tanto griegos como turcos rechazaron esa mùsica por ser multirracial, y cada uno comenzó a crear la "suya" propia, incorporando armonias y polifonias occidentales mediante el temperamento de los intervalos y la creación, a principios de siglo, del buzuki como instrumento griego protagonista. Asi pues, la música griega actual ha cambiado mucho, pero sigue viva brindando generosamente su inagotable riqueza a toda persona que se le acerque.

There are a few number of live albums released by Fairuz (apart from the musical plays), considering the great number of concerts she has made in the entire world and 'At the Olympia' must be one of the greatest among these albums. The number of the songs is very big, more than 25 and there is also a number of instrumentals. The concert(s) was held in the Olympia, Paris, France on the 3rd and 4th of May 1979.
Inside the booklet there are some documents and articles on Fairouz and the Rahbani, their beginnings, tours, etc… , but all in French (which I only know of 'Je n'parle pas le Francias mais Je parle l'englaih', I am not even sure about the spelling). There are also some pictures taken from the concert, the airport? and the Olympia hall.
The quality of the album is unbelievable. If you have a good sound system setup, close your eyes and play this album and you'll feel as if you're IN the concert. Voix de l'Orient couldn't make it all the way good, they crammed the songs on 3 tracks on each CD, which is to say the least, misuse of the CD technology. Bottomline: Get it.
www.fairouz.com

Aruna Sairam is one of the most beloved representatives of Carnatic vocal music—a style that is rooted in the devotional songs and music from the temples of South India. Acclaimed for her distinctive style and deeply moving performances, she has sold out countless concerts both in India and abroad.
Aruna is the recipient of several major Indian classical music honors, including the prestigious title of "Sangita Choodamani." Regarded as an innovator in Carnatic music, she has performed with various European and African artists, including the Gregorian chant master Dominique Vellard, with whom she performed at the Fès Festival of World Sacred Music.

This is a collection of music that was composed around rhythm rather than the melody, allowing the tonal and emotional center of the music to be established by the percussion and rhythm. Once the rhythms were complete, I brought in the other musicians who helped to reveal the natural form of each piece. The musicians who took part in this project all have a deep respect for rhythm and the interplay of the melodic instruments with the percussion. Many times I abandoned my initial ideas as new elements - beats and instruments - were added. I didn't want the music to be forced into any pre-conceived images I might have had and confining it to one reference point. That is why I decided to bypass conventional titles for any of the pieces. I want the listener to start in a neutral space of his or her own experience."

Greg Ellis

Abdel Gadir Salim (velvet-voiced master of swaying Sudanese song and ud player extraordinaire) started to sing and to play music in Dilling, the town in which he was born, in the south of Kordofan. Inspired by the night-time singing of local songs - merdoum, ayjako, senjaq , singing and clapping that you can hear up to 20 miles away on a clear midnight - he realised that he should look to Sudanese roots for melodic and rhythmic motifs to further develop his music.

The group heard on this GlobeStyle recording is a special one caught on a flying visit to the UK for a one-off concert, and features one of the top violinists of Sudan, Mohammed Abdulla M'hamadia.

This CD brings together selections from Emerald Web's recordings Nocturne and Lights of the Ivory Plains, creating a delicate balance of musical atmospheres. It flows from the haunting melodies of bass flute and Celtic harp to the intricate, rhythmic permutations of digital synthesizers to the timbral diversity of the Lyricon wind–driven synthesizer paired with the Japanese shakuhachi flute. With this music, Emerald Web combines a series of evocative, musical spaces into a graceful, unified whole.

Emerald Web is Bob Stohl and Kat Epple, who perform in concert and produce music for a variety of applications, including film and television soundtracks, dance, and planetarium shows, in addition to sound recordings.

The Estonian keyboarder and composer Peeter Vähi takes us along a path into the exotic world of Asia, to the Siberian shamans, a overtone singer from Tuva , a Taiwanese ensemble, performs with a Turkish darbuka player, leads us to a Vietnamese woman with her bamboo xylophone, to a woman flautist and a singer from Cambodia who masters a unique performance technique. One seems to be in the heart of Asia in "Shambala", a mystical place and its religious community somewhere in the Himalaya. In actual fact it can be found in a sheer boundlessly multifacetted cultural location.

Like many other contemporary musicians and composers that are keyboard players, computer musicians and producers at the same time, Achim Gieseler too began his musical career by studying classical music. Comparing these musicians we realize that their individual approaches resemble one another strongly. Through different phases in jazz, Rock and experimental music and by means of their complex electronical instrumentarium all of these musicians almost automatically reach a very sophisticated level in studio performances, film, TV- and theatre-music compositions. The results of their work naturally differs.

L'AIR, LA TERRE is a phantastic journey, an album of surreal pictures out of an unknown, Gieseler's 7th world, between imagination and reality. Inspired by the differences of nations and people, their thinking and their methods of expressing themselves, this album is a declaration of love to all the different cultures of the world. Joined as one species they bear the future.

This two-part album of symphonic space music by Constance Demby is a must-have. Divinely inspired? Probably so; for those who believe in Fate, the timing of its release was in alignment with the arrival of the Harmonic Convergence. Demby, with her years on the road with an experimental music group, was used to creating massive spiritual works: large sounds, unusual instruments, and broad scopes. Novus Magnificat was her first album produced with her 16-track studio using digital sampling technology. Here, she had all the voices of the orchestra and choir at her fingertips, and she used all 16 tracks (and then some) to complete the composition. The music is in two parts: part one is like wandering the halls of heaven before the Big Event. Choir sounds bounce from cloud formations, and redemption seems at hand. Though Demby sets an overall path of sound, rhapsodic cul-de-sacs appear like intimate and sacred shrines. Part two begins with a Bach-like organ piece, which creates fascinating inner structures. Demby then takes you through long hallways; angels sing nearby, melodies tug at your heart, space winds clean away cobwebs of the mind. Trumpets begin their heralding calls, an organ sings in anticipation, choirs rejoice, harps fly, shooting stars sparkle. Peak builds on crescendo until ultimately, the cosmos split open and the whole universe joyously avalanches through with the angels enjoying the ride. This awe-inspiring and breathtaking anointment is worth playing on a good sound system. Crank up the sound, place yourself between the speakers, and allow yourself the gift of this music. Space music composer Michael Stearns contributed special celestial sonic effects. [Allmusic.com]

The eight-hundred-year-old texts ot the great Tibetan yogi and poet MILAREPA have been awakened to new life. Thanks to the music and songs of the Estonian musician SVEN GRÜNBERG. Grünberg has had the orignal texts, which have been handed down, translated into the Estonian language by his master Linnart Mäll.

By the perposeful and Spartan use ot many instruments (see booklet) in conjuction with electronics, Grünberg produces a dramatic effect of inmmense depth and feeling. We perceive "unheard" music, something grand which is never expressed. Thus Grünberg bows in humility before the life's work
of the saintly Tibetan Buddhist and poet MILAREPA (1040-1123) who has brought even for the present age such a significant turn from black to white magic; the charismatic, Tantric yogi who opened for us the path to mental freedom, to the totality of knowledge, to consummate transcendence.

GRÜNBERG's life began 1956 in Estonia but he built his career as a musician and composer in the former USSR, where he made a name for himself as one or the few pioneers of electronic music. The climax of this part of his life is undoubtedly his album "OM" which was published by Melodija in 1988 and is known all over the world. (His first album "Hingus" appeared in 1981). His main interest as a musician and composer is to transfer mythological and metaphorical pictures especially of the Asiatic folk music into a global, contemporary view of our world.

Le groupe Fleuve Jaune (Huang he) est un des seuls ensembles hors de Chine à jouer le grand répertoire. Composé de personnalités fortes, professionnels confirmés, c'est un ensemble à géométrie variable, du solo à l'orchestre, du grave à l'aigu, de l'intime au puissant, à la mesure de l'immense Chine. La musique que joue le groupe Fleuve Jaune est à l'image majestueuse du grand fleuve, riche de multiples affluents, riche d'un terroir fertile, riche d'une tradition qui a su dompter les crues, traversant des contrées tantôt désertiques, tantôt riantes, pour se jeter dans l'océan de la musique universelle. Car telle est l'ambition de ces professionnels en exil: faire vivre une culture dont les racines sont immenses et dont les fleurs s'épanouissent au regard de quiconque a des oreilles pour entendre, assumant et transfigurant l'exotisme.

Fondé en 1984, le groupe Fleuve Jaune a pour vocation de rassembler les musiciens, chanteurs, danseurs et acrobates chinois vivant à Paris, sans distinction de nationalité. En 1986 il accompagne le Voyage en Chine intérieure de Gilberte Tsaï en Avignon. Le compositeur Chen Qigang fait appel à lui pour la musique du film Chine, ma douleur de Dai Shijie. En juin 1989, l'ensemble est au cœur du concert Chine, je n'oublie pas qui rassemble au Zénith, musiciens chinois et français épris de liberté. Un an plus tard, il organise à l'Arche de la Défense une grande fête populaire, dans la tradition de la Chine du nord. Il s'est produit également à Radio France, dans la grande salle de l'Unesco, au festival international des musiques traditionnelles de Rennes, au carnaval des enfants de Bordeaux et au festival de Ris-Orangis.