Search - Various Artists :: Holding Up Half Sky: Voices of Asian Women

Oriental Tunes from Across the Asian Continent

Zekeriyah | Chicago, IL | 09/03/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Asia is a vast continent, stretching from the frozen steppes of the north to tropical jungles of southern India. Some of the earliest civilizations arose along the Indus and Yellow River valleys. The result? There is an incredible array of cultures, languages and religions in Asia, each with their own styles of music. It's unusual to find a CD that can give such a broad overview of Asian music, yet somehow this CD manages to do just that.



Focusing on female musicians, this CD does a wonderful job showing just how diverse yet beautfiul Asian music can be. Fourteen groups and performers from nine different countries give an excellent representation of the music of an entire continent. Indian singer Najma Akhtar does a haunting ghazal, Nasida Ria from Indonesia perform an Islamic qasida song, and Yulduz Usmanova sings an Uzbek pop song from the steppes of Central Asia. Chawiwan Damnoen offers a traditional Thai song, Indonesia's Idjah Hadidjah demonstrates Sundanese pop music (a different language from Bahasa Indonesia), the band Nenes shows Okinawan folk music, and Choying Drolma performs alongside Tibetan Buddhist nuns. All of the tracks on this CD are beautiful, from the refined, courtly sound of Chinese singer Liu Sola, to the tribal chants of Sainkho Namchylak of Tuva (in the Russian Far East).



This CD is incredible. If you have little to no knowledge of Asian music, this CD will shatter any preconceptions you have. The vast array of styles, instruments and languages garuntees that you get alot of variety. In fact, you'll probably become fascinated with at least one or two artists on this CD, and wind up increasing your musical collection in the proccess. This is pretty addictive stuff after all. Definately worth checking out, if your interested in Asian music at all."