Various Artists - Silk Road, The (A Musical Caravan) available on March 13 2015 from Base for 17.89
The Silk Road: A Musical Caravan available on February 24 2015 from Amazon for 15.66
UPC bar code 093074043820 ξ1 registered September 27 2014
UPC bar code 093074043820 ξ2 registered February 24 2015
Product category is MUSIC CD - CD - World Audio
Manufacturered by Smithsonian Folkways
Product weight is 0.32 lbs.
"What if Marco Polo had owned tape recorder?" This intriguing concept is raised in the liner notes to this impressive two-CD set, which wanders along ancient Asian trade routes known as the Silk Road. The first disc, Masters & Traditions, deals with formal styles performed by and for sophisticated connoisseurs. Meanwhile, the music on Minstrels and Lovers is played by amateurs who are part of daily life and thus reach a wider audience. The imaginary caravan passes through Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, and Afghanistan, encountering nomads, mystics, and bards along the way. The instruments are scratchy, pungent, and/or serene, while the singers weave a potent spell out of a millennium's worth of slow-changing rural and urban vistas. In the opening essay, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the project's artistic director, pleads for intercultural communication and empathy. This compilation provides an exotic, brave, entertaining first step in that direction. --Christina Roden
