Putumayo comes up with some interesting compilations. Tea Lands is less successful than most. The concept is to present a variety of music from Asian lands and cultures, and it's not a bad one. But not all of the selections seem to fit the concept, and not all of them mesh with each other.
There are a number of beautiful and intriguing pieces on this disc. One of the best is a song by Oki, an Ainu musician from Japan who sings a modern folk song while accompanying himself on the tankori, a traditional dulcimer-like lute. The Indonesian musician Hila Hambala sings a gorgeous love song and plays guitar, and the Pakistani Ghulam Ali sings a drinking song in the ghazal style, in his warm and slightly rough voice. Okan Murat Ozturk plays an Anatolian lute known as saz on a very traditional song with multi-layered melody and a stately rhythm. Iranian Kamil Alipour plays a Persian classical selection on lutes and frame drums.
The cover promises that this is "a soothing, inspirational brew of exotic music steeped in the traditions of Asia's tea lands." Soothing it is. Perhaps I'm confused about what they call "tea lands," but I wasn't expecting music from Tatarstan in central Asia, or Persia, Pakistan and Turkey, for that matter. I guess places where they drink a lot of tea count as tea lands, too. But then, where's the English folk music?
Some of the selections from what I do consider tea lands, China, India and Indonesia, are pretty soothing, all right. Indian guitarist Sanjay Mishra's "For Julia" and the Chinese/American ensemble Ancient Future's "The Empress" border on easy listening. Tatar vocalist Zulya's song "Saginou" is lovely, but it's pretty New Agey and pop-oriented, and calls to mind a samovar more than a tea plantation. China's Lei Qiang plays a lovely piece on the Chinese fiddle known as the erhu, with ensemble backing that makes it sound like a romantic movie soundtrack. And while Indonesian gamelan music is fascinating to watch in performance, on recording it can sound like garden-variety electronica -- Ujang Suryana's beautiful flute playing doesn't save "Kang Mandor" from sounding like synthesized clockwork.
If you want some Asian music that's pretty palatable to Western ears, this is a good set. They're mostly lovely selections, but together, they left me yawning and glad it's only 10 tracks. I'm a tea lover myself, but this package could use a little bigger jolt of caffeine.
