THE PATH TO THE HEART OF ASIA

PEETER VÄHI

An exciting dialogue between Western and Asiatic cultures – Estonian composer Peeter Vähi and the featuring musicians of the festival Orient ’92. ”...this is a most unusual and truly cross-culture breed of many musicians... There’s certainly an electronic presence, yet the acoustic elements are as strong, it’s both atmospheric and dynamic, featuring lots of ethnic instruments I’ve never heard of! All I can really say is that this is alluring and unique.” (Audion, UK)

Performed by:
Burhan Öçal (darbuka / Turkey)
Boris Salchak (vocal, tungur / Southern Siberia)
Khoun Sethisak (pei poak, vocal / Cambodia)
Ngo Thi Tanh Huong (tryng / Vietnam)
Wen Chin-lung (erh-hu / Taiwan)
Chi Yung-pin (pi-pa / Taiwan)
Li Ting-yui (yang-qin / Taiwan)
Hsieh Meng-ju (yuan-hsien / Taiwan)
Chen Chung-sheng (di / Taiwan)
Mongush Mergen (chanzy, vocal / Tyva)
Peeter Vähi (keyboards, Tibetan cymbals, Indonesian gong, Vietnamese bell, background vocals / Estonia)

Music composed / arranged on the basis Asian traditional tunes and rhythms by Peeter Vähi
Lyrics: trad
Recorded at the Tallinn City Hall (Matrix Audio Studio), from Apr to Jun 1992
Engineered by Jüri Tamm

Artwork by Everi Vähi
Layout by Thomas Kunadt
Booklet (16 pages) compiled by Leili Parhomenko
Liner notes translated by Lize Mazing
Photos by Tiit Koha and Jaanus Heinla
Produced by Peeter Vähi
Special thanks: Dr Vladimir Ivanoff, Ulli A Ruetzel
Published 1992 by Erdenklang Musikverlag, Germany
20602 Erdenklang Records, Germany

ADD, Stereo

 Download: #3, Legend Three, fragm, 92 sec, mp3, 1453 KB
 Download: #5, Legend Five, fragm, 111 sec, mp3, 2609 KB
 Download: #9, Legend Nine, fragm, 95 sec, mp3, 1488 KB

The Path To The Heart Of Asia – what does it signify? The heart of Asia in the religious sense is thought to be Shambhala, a spiritual brotherhood of mythical people located somewhere in the area of Himalayas. In this particular context, such an interpretation is evidently too concrete. Geographically, the present record represents both the heart and the limitless borderlands of Asia. Different musicians, participants of the music festival “Orient ’92” in Tallinn, took part in the recording: they include, for example, a master of guttural overtonal chanting and a shaman from Kyzyl, the capital of Tyva and the geographic centre of Asia; and also a musician from Turkey, brought up in the traditions of Turkish folk and classical serail music. The choice of Chinese music is specially lucky: it is performed by musicians from Taiwan. In most provinces of the People’s Republic of China, the tradition of “silk and bamboo” music has not been preserved so well. Add a Vietnamese with bamboo xylophone and Khmer folk musicians from Cambodia and you have the geographic range of the festival as well as that of the record.
There are two ways to record music: either in a sterile way with digital purity or maintaining the authenticity of music – maintaining even the occasional slips that are characteristic of folk music. “My aim was to keep it natural”, says the composer. “A musician should play in the studio just as he is accustomed to play in a mountain village or at a popular festival. In order to communicate feeling, the Legends have been recorded as a complete wholes from the beginning up to the very end, without using the possibility of cuts in the studio.”

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Distribution in Estonia by Easy Living Music, reispuk@neti.ee, phone +372 51 06058
Distribution in Germany by Erdenklang Records, mailorder@erdenklang.de
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