Chinese
traditional music and beyond
Silk Sound
Liu Fang (pipa, guzheng), Alla (oud), Ballake Sissoko (Kora),
Henri Tournier (Bansuri)
Label: Accords Croises / Harmonia
Mundi | AC116 | released in 2006
This
album received the prestigious French
L'Académie Charles Cros award on August 4, 2006
[English]
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Selected
as one of the best disque of the year 2006 (Le
meilleur des musiques du monde de l'année 2006
) by the French New Paper
Le
Devoir !
"...
graceful, soft, yet powerful, ... Thus the joy of this
album is not just in the supernaturally soothing and
meditative quality of Fang’s pipa, but its merging
with other meditative instruments from around the world,
..." - DailyOM,
December 25, 2006.
"...
a delicately embroidered album that reveals a remarkable
cogency between instruments worlds apart..." -
mondomix.com
,2006.
"...
Whereas in most of her recordings on the Philmultic
label Liu Fang concentrates on pipa, for this elegantly
packaged release on French label Accords Croisés
three of the eleven tracks are guzheng solos, adding
variety and giving a wider view of her musicianship.
All the rest are pipa-led: four solo, two duets with
Ballaké Sissoko’s kora, two with Henri
Tournier on Indian bansuri transverse flute, and one
with Algerian oud player Alla.
.... But Liu Fang’s total devotion to her playing
has moved her beyond perfect execution to the creativity
and flexibility that marks a true musician. .... The
duets here are based on traditional themes but are improvising
dialogues. ..." - fROOT magazine, 2006.
"...
Each dialogue produces an aesthetic giddiness comparable
to that Buddhist paintings express. All project us beyond
the feelings of anger, of joy or of pain, and bring
us closer to a source of universal serenity." -
Les Inrockuptibles,
2006
More Press Reviews |
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The
pieces
- High
mountains and rippling waters
(Guzheng solo, classical tradition)
- Jasmine
flowers (guzheng and bansuri)
- The
King Chu doffs his armour (pipa solo, classical tradition)
- Primary
meeting (pipa and kora)
- The
dragon boat (pipa solo)
- Gold-embroidered
tapestry (guzheng solo)
- Kangding
love-song (pipa and kora)
- Autumn
moon over the calm lake (guzheng solo)
- Light
wind in a cloud of falling snow-flakes (pipa and bansuri)
- Autumn
moon over the Han imperial palace (pipa solo)
- A
walk in the country of dreams (pipa and oud)
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CD
review in Mondomix,
France
Ever
since Liu Fang left China for western climes she has opened up
her classical pipa repertory to other traditions. In Berlin her
exchange with Syrian ‘oudist Farhan Sabbagh resulted in
Fang’s second release “Arabic and Chinese music”.
One critic wrote the following: “It is satisfying to hear
a group of instruments together, the way they relate, take turns,
complement each other. These are master musicians at work, indeed."
Similar words can be uttered over “Le Son de Soie”,
a delicately embroidered album that reveals a remarkable cogency
between instruments worlds apart. The West African kora of Ballaké
Sissoko, the ‘oud played by Alla of Algeria, and Henry Tournier’s
bansuri flute, are in perfect symbiosis with Fang’s pipa
and guzheng.
“I
sensed keenly (sic.) her awakening to other forms of music,”
explains Tournier in the elaborate sleeve notes, “During
our improvisation sessions it became clear that it was the bansuri
flute…which pleased her most and could respond best to her
own musicality.” The osmosis does indeed appear complete
in “Light wind in a cloud of falling snow-flakes,”
yet it would be a disservice to the other virtuosic musicians
on the album to claim they have come out second-best.
Mali’s Sissoko, in particular, complements Fang’s
refined strumming of the pipa, this lute with some 2,000 years
of history behind it. In the appropriately named “Première
rencontre”, his kora gels with her pipa so gracefully that
one wonders if they do not share a common heritage down the millenia.
The plectra on Fang’s fingertips alternate between power
and delicacy throughout the song, as she displays a technique
rarely surpassed elsewhere. It echoes the words of a ninth century
sage, quoted in the sleeve notes by Caroline Bourgine: “The
stronger strings resonate like a sudden shower of rain, the finer
ones like a suppressed sigh.”
Fang proves to be equally adept on the guzheng, this plucked,
half-tube zither with 21 strings. The emotion she invests in this
instrument of Persian origin transpires in each note: “As
she plays her zither, attacking and biting into the strings with
her right hand, she consciously replicates the actions and body
movements of a fish or bird,” Bourgine notes. This proximity
with nature and its animals underscores the spirit of this tranquil
and flowing album. Improvisations and spontaneity between the
four master musicians never supersede a harmony that seems engraved
in the marbles of time. This is a CD to meditate over, and with.
May 2006
Daniel Brown
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