Further On Up The Road

This second disk by Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble, titled Silk Road Journeys : Beyond The Horizon, isn't quite so wide ranging as the first disk which took in China, the middle east and even a detour north to Finland. To my ears, this disk tends to concentrate on the central Asia / Persian strand of the connections along the route, despite a couple of specially composed pieces by Zhao Jiping and Zhao Lin. It is also a disk that features heavier participation from Yo-Yo Ma himself. Very fine music, definitely in the folk/ ethnic/ world music sohere mare than the classical but art music for all that. The disk is split into three distinct suites, Enchantment, Origins and New Beginnings. As well as the violins, violas, cellos and bass, the musical instruments used are becoming ever more familiar and less exotic as interest in such music grows. Santur, duduk, tabla, ney and kamancheh are all instruments whose distinctive sounds can be heard more and more frequently on western airwaves. Throw in piano, harp, pipa, shakuhachi and more percussion than you can shake a stick at and you get the idea of how this record sounds. There is also the occasional declaimed vocal contribution. An authentic sounding and collaborative achievement.