Best Australia & New Zealand

Australian music inspired by the Didgeridoo. Features Robert Mirabal and Mor Thiam.

In recent years, unprecedented interest in Australian Aboriginal culture and art has helped to bring the visceral sound of the didgeridoo to international awareness. Though little more than a hollowed-out tree branch, this Northern Australian wind instrument is capable of producing a vast array of intricate rhythms and otherworldly tone colors. Although he makes his own instruments and performs in traditional styles, this artist has also taken the art form to a new level through an innovative combination of extended techniques and modern compositional ideas. Producer, Steve Roach, provided a carefully designed resonant setting that inspired Hudson to play with ambience and to take the didgeridoo in some unexpected directions.

David Hudson, master of the Aboriginal instrument known as the didgeridoo , combines with long-time collaborator and producer, Steve Roach, to create music from a 50,000 year tradition which maintains its heart and soul in the setting of a modern digital recording studio. In Rainbow Serpent , Hudson uses multiple didgeridoos, with simple percussion and some of Steve Roach's subtle digital processing, to create a unique recording that blends the most ancient musical sounds with the latest hi-tech sound devices. Hudson uses the traditional technique of circular breathing to keep the flow of music continuous and to maintain its meditative state. Known primarily for his traditional styles and use of the traditional technique of circular breathing, Hudson is credited for taking the art form to a new level through an innovative combination of extended techniques and modern compositional ideas.

Inkuyo , a group of accomplished musicians, brings the ancient instruments and songs of the majestic Andean highlands and of their Incan heritage, firmly into the 20th century. Performing on the quena (a resonant cane flute), an assortment of pan-pipes, Andean drums and other percussion instruments, as well as specially constructed versions of the guitar, violin, harp, and tiple (introduced by the Spanish), the members of Inkuyo conjure a heady atmosphere of scintillating melodies and spicy, South American rhythms. An internationally recognized virtuoso of pan-pipes and South American flutes, Inkuyo founder Gonzalo Vargas , inherited his traditional musical knowledge growing up in the remote Andean village of Tapajkari, Bolivia.

Most touching are the string-backed laments that open and close the album, "Hawai'i '78 Introduction" and "Hawai'i '78," initially a reflection on his father's death, later on the passing of Hawaii's native culture. Best known is his medley "Somewhere over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World," which played over the closing credits of the film Meet Joe Black .

It is a distinctive mix of folk instruments and courtly formality--a highly disciplined and richly ornamented music originally conceived for moments of importance and ceremony. Several unusual instruments are employed, including the dan bau , a one-string guitar with a bamboo stem that bends notes like a whammy bar , and the k'ni , a rifle-shaped fiddle with a mouth attachment that can create a voice-box effect similar to that used by rock guitarists such as Peter Frampton and Joe Walsh in the '70s. The music is so expertly performed and so beautifully sequenced--the focus shifting from ensemble to solo pieces, from stringed instruments to flutes--that attention never wanders. The most exciting pieces feature a clarinet playing long lines over pounding percussion, a combination common to the music of many Southeast Asian nations.

African music CD release from Ladysmith Black Mambazo with the album Best Of Ladysmith Black Mambazo. African music CD.

Disc one has 13 Tracks. Each disc is dedicated to a genre: Cuban Invocations (Afro-Cuban religious music), Cantar en Cuba (songcraft), Bailar con Cuba (dance music), and Cubano Jazz (jazz).

Born of the Creole community in Louisiana's backwaters and moving outward to Texas and California, Zydeco bumps, grinds, and is a wang dang doodle of a big time.

Most touching are the string-backed laments that open and close the album, "Hawai'i '78 Introduction" and "Hawai'i '78," initially a reflection on his father's death, later on the passing of Hawaii's native culture. Best known is his medley "Somewhere over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World," which played over the closing credits of the film Meet Joe Black .

Ancient carols, Renaissance rhythms and haunting medieval hymns bring to life images of desert landscapes, stone monasteries and the origins of Christmas. Maggie Sansone on hammered dulcimer with members of Ensemble Galilei: Marcia Diehl on recorder, bowed psaltery and pennywhistle; Jim Brooks on recorder and concertina; Sue Richards on Celtic harp; Carolyn Surrick on treble viola & bass viola da gamba; Bonnie Rideout on fiddle, Zan McLeod on cittern and guitar and Ben Harms on hand drums and tambourine.

Born of the Creole community in Louisiana's backwaters and moving outward to Texas and California, Zydeco bumps, grinds, and is a wang dang doodle of a big time.