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Nguyên Lê - Saiyuki (2009)

Posted By: Juma

Date: 3 Dec 2009 19:46:17

He's not the first guitarist to explore the nexus of east and west—the legendary John McLaughlin is, at the very least, the first well-known six-stringer to do so—but, over the past couple decades, Nguyên Lê has been finding his own junctures. McLaughlin may have dug deep into the place where western harmony and Indian linearity meet, but Lê has set his sights even more expansively. Of Vietnamese descent, he's explored the music of his own heritage on Tales from Vietnam (ACT, 1996) and the confluence of that birthright with the Middle East and contemporary technology on Homescapes (ACT, 2006). On Saiyuki, he cuts a broad swath across two continents, from his Parisian home to Japan, with stops along the way in India and Vietnam.

Accompanied by Japanese kotoist Mieko Miyazaki and tablaist/percussionist Prabhu Edouard, Lê delivers a joyful program that's also one of his most organic albums in recent years. Yes, he's an electric guitarist and, as ever, his tonal choices are impeccable, but the use of technology is so well-integrated that it's easy to imagine this as a live performance. A truly egalitarian offering, the music is co-composed by all three players, who dip into the wellsprings of their individual cultures to create a program that's transcendent in its beauty and cultural cross-pollination, supporting the old adage of music as the international language.

Edouard's konnakol (vocal percussion) opens the joyously upbeat "Sweet Ganesh," a linear composition possessing a knotty but memorable melody that's akin to McLaughlin's Shakti and Remember Shakti groups, but Lê's heavily sustaining, compressed, and overdriven tone is distanced from McLaughlin's, and his microtonal bends are even more directly linked to the eastern tradition. Miyazaki's harp-like koto also adds a richer texture to the trio; everyone solos, but it all feels compositional, even Edouard's lengthy konnakol/tabla solo towards the song's end.

"Autumn Wind" is even more meditational; like the breeze of its title, the song gradually takes on forward motion, its gentle spirituality the result of Lê's winding harmonics and guest bansuri flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia's rich, unhurried lines. Chaurasia was a member of the first Remember Shakti incarnation, first meeting McLaughlin during the sessions for percussionist Zakir Hussain's seminal Making Music (ECM, 1987), and so his participation on three of Saiyuki's ten tracks is especially auspicious.

Elsewhere, "Mina Zuki," with Lê's bluesy acoustic guitar, manages to link Japan with the Mississippi Delta, though its rich arrangement also possesses just a hint of the American Midwest. "Azur" may be, as Lê puts it, "a jazz composition," but the trio's arrangement takes it deep into the orient, with Miyazaki's the largely dominant and definitive voice.

Despite complexity under the covers, the music of Saiyuki—seemingly diametrically opposed to its translation, "Journey to the West"—soothes with its innate lyricism and elegant optimism. With his distinctive approach to exploring and integrating music from around the globe, Lê continues to impress with his fine playing, astute collaborative choices, and personal vision.

John Kelman, 16 October 2009, at allaboutjazz.com

The Music:
01. Sweet Ganesh - 05:30 (Prabhu Edouard)
02. Autumn Wind - 05:55 (Nguyên Lê)
03. Mina Zuki - 04:41 (Mieko Miyazaki)
04. Mayur - 06:23 (Prabhu Edouard)
05. Sangam - 05:23 (Prabhu Edouard)
06. Azur - 07:40 (Nguyên Lê)
07. Izanagi Izanami - 04:53 (Mieko Miyazaki)
08. Hen Ho - 03:54 (Nguyên Lê)
09. Nanae Goromo - 07:01 (Mieko Miyazaki, Nguyên Lê, Prabhu Edouard)
10. Ila - 04:41 (Prabhu Edouard)

The Players:
* Nguyên Lê – guitars
* Mieko Miyazaki – koto, vocals
* Prabhu Edouard – tablas, percussion, vocals

Special Guest:
* Hariprasad Chaurasia - bansuri flute (on track 2, 3 & 5)

The Record:
Produced, recorded & mixed by Nguyên Lê at Louxor studios, Paris Barbès, April & May 2009
Mastered by Bruno Gruel, Elektra Mastering
Executive Producer: Siegfried Loch

The Links:

Hotfile
| Part 1 | Part 2 |

Rapidshare
| Part 1 | Part 2 |

Note:
An mp3 version at 320 kbps of this record has already been posted here (use the search function to find it). However some people might prefer lossless quality. Here it is.

EAC Log

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008

EAC extraction logfile from 3. November 2009, 19:16

Nguyên Lê / Saiyuki

Used drive : Optiarc DVD RW AD-5170A Adapter: 0 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 320 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 5:33.40 | 0 | 25014
2 | 5:33.40 | 5:55.52 | 25015 | 51691
3 | 11:29.17 | 4:43.05 | 51692 | 72921
4 | 16:12.22 | 6:25.29 | 72922 | 101825
5 | 22:37.51 | 5:23.03 | 101826 | 126053
6 | 28:00.54 | 7:43.15 | 126054 | 160793
7 | 35:43.69 | 4:56.62 | 160794 | 183055
8 | 40:40.56 | 3:57.28 | 183056 | 200858
9 | 44:38.09 | 7:04.73 | 200859 | 232731
10 | 51:43.07 | 4:41.26 | 232732 | 253832

Track 1

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Track 2

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Track 3

Filename K:\[ Torrents ]\Nguyên Lê\Nguyên Lê - Saiyuki (2009) [flac]\03 - Mina Zuki.wav

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Track 4

Filename K:\[ Torrents ]\Nguyên Lê\Nguyên Lê - Saiyuki (2009) [flac]\04 - Mayur.wav

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Track 5

Filename K:\[ Torrents ]\Nguyên Lê\Nguyên Lê - Saiyuki (2009) [flac]\05 - Sangam.wav

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Track 6

Filename K:\[ Torrents ]\Nguyên Lê\Nguyên Lê - Saiyuki (2009) [flac]\06 - Azur.wav

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Peak level 99.9 %
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Track 7

Filename K:\[ Torrents ]\Nguyên Lê\Nguyên Lê - Saiyuki (2009) [flac]\07 - Izanagi Izanami.wav

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Peak level 99.9 %
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Track 8

Filename K:\[ Torrents ]\Nguyên Lê\Nguyên Lê - Saiyuki (2009) [flac]\08 - Hen Ho.wav

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Peak level 99.9 %
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Track 9

Filename K:\[ Torrents ]\Nguyên Lê\Nguyên Lê - Saiyuki (2009) [flac]\09 - Nanae Goromo.wav

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Peak level 99.9 %
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
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Track 10

Filename K:\[ Torrents ]\Nguyên Lê\Nguyên Lê - Saiyuki (2009) [flac]\10 - Ila.wav

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Peak level 99.9 %
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
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None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database

No errors occurred

End of status report

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