Folklore

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Comments:
With minimal use of electronics and modern studio toys, Forrest Fang has constructed an album of tribal/primal music that easily stands alongside recent works by Jeff Grienke, Jorge Reyes, Steve Roach and Robert Rich. The latter two both contribute to one track, 'The Healing Stick', adding didjeridu, double ocarina and PVC flute. Two other tracks also include guest players, with Balinese gender by I Wayan Sujana on 'Gender Lament,' and the noted Zhang Yan on ghu-zeng, and Liu Qi-Chao playing suona (Chinese oboe) and dizu (Chinese flute) on 'The Eight Immortals'. The rest of the music is by Fang, using both Western and non-Western strings, winds and percussion, musical objects and electronics. The organic, natural feel of the music crosses many cultures, drawing on the epic art of storytelling as its loose thread of inspiration: from the 11th-Centery Sung Dynasty story of the Chnan-Chou bridge, the visionary diaries of 16th-Century Hispanic explorer Cabeza de Vaca, and Italo Calvino's contemporary novel, 'Invisible Cities,' a fantasy based on historical accounts of 15th-Century Mongol emperor Kublai Khan and his wife Chabui. Fang masterfully displays his mystical wares, an intricate fabric of rich history and inspired journeying.
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