Tracks:
- The Bridge Of Chuan-Chou: I. Crossing The River 6:27
- The Bridge Of Chuan-Chou: II. The Dragon King's Advice 4:30
- The Bridge Of Chuan-Chou: III. Falling Stones (Kuan Yin) 4:28
- The Bridge Of Chuan-Chou: IV. An Offering Of Wood 6:03
- The Bridge Of Chuan-Chou: V. The Eight Immortals 9:15
- Ehecatl 1:58
- Receiving The Approaching Spirit 4:24
- The Healing Stick Of Cabaeza De Vaca 13:27
- Gender Lament 3:46
- A Shaman In Pursuit Of Chabui's Image 8:09
- Departure 1:50
On Folklore, Forrest combines influences & instruments of many lands together with a modern esthestic & electronic instruments. Forrest plays violin, sampler, & instruments from Bali, Botswana, China, India, Java, Kenya, Mexico, Mongolia, Syria & Thailand. His music is neither traditional nor "worldmusic", but a personal mixture of influences & instrumentation.
"This is an exceptional record. -The Wire.
"Fang's story-like suites are full of changes and exotic turns that always have an underpinning melodicism and atmosphere."-Billboard.
"A fine meditative album."-Facelift.
A review from Billboard MagazineForrest Fang has been working at the world music nexus for years, mixing instruments like the gu-zheng, a Chinese zither, the African kora, Balinese gamelans, and violin. With synthesizers and samplers, he blends these instruments into a mythic traditional music that sounds like it could come from anywhere, possibly any planet. Fang's story-like suites are full of changes and exotic turns that always have an underpinning of melodicism and atmosphere. Steve Roach and Robert Rich and some traditional players are guests, but for the most part, it's Fang, creating his own transglobal orchestra and a post-tribal folklore.
A review from The Wire The Chinese-American composer Forrest Fang is clearly the proud owner of a roomful of ethnic instruments, more Chinese lutes than you can shake a rainstick at, and he has access to hi-tech recording facilities. This combination does not always make for fascinating listening, but this is an exceptional album. Fang plays his instruments rather than samples them, and his rattling frame drums and Chinese fiddles are earthy and convincing. The samples provide mysterious washes and backdrops, and the music often moves into the same mind-melting territory as Toop & Eastley's Buried Dreams. The first 20 minutes are fairly cheerful, almost pop instrumentals: "The Dragon King's Advice" sounds like The Chieftains in Shanghai. Then the music gets darker, and better. Pieces are structured like stories, series of intriguing events, especially the 13 minute epic, "The Healing Stick of Cabeza De Vaca" (isn't that 'cow's head'?). If you've heard any of the recent theatre music by English guitarist and gamelan expert Adrian Lee, there are strong similarities here too.
A review from The Village VoiceMost Asian-American composers seem to study 12-tone music at Columbia so they can write glissando-serialism, but Fang has come up with a compelling Asian new-music sensibility all his own. He's a multiculturalist's dream: the Chinese folk-song quotations enveloped by electronic continua; the jazz tinge to the Chinese zither and Thai mouth organ solos; the rock momentum; the Mideastern, African, and Central American percussion. And yet unlike all those opportunists making hay off the left's ideology-of-the-month, Fang blends his heterogeneous sources into rich, overpowering sonorities, with rhythmic ostinatos that won't let you sit still. Even the rock beat of The Bridge of Ch¸an-Chou, pounded on Moroccan tambourine and Chines gan juo drum, has more the tranquil, objective feel of ritual than of frenetic individuality, and there's too much rigor, austerity, and rumbling electronic discord for the music to ever lapse into New Age.