Nguyen Le with Huong Thanh, Paolo Fresu, Paul McCandless, Michel Benita, Renaud Garcia-Fons, Peter Erskine, Terri Lyne Carrington

Nguyên Lê opens his Signature Edition with a kind of prelude: the previously unreleased track “Magic Constant” introduces the listener to his incomparable musical kingdom, full of very different landscapes. “I am the personified fusion of cultures,” once he said, and his compositions and interpretations certainly combine forms, styles and elements in a previously unknown, unheard way. There are pure classic adaptations (for instance on the traditional “Lo Rossinyol”) as well as abstract clusters of contemporary music; many pieces are defined by Vietnamese music traditions: By its - for Western people - unfamiliar harmonies, by the archaic sounds of the traditional one-string-instrument Dan Bau, and by the mystical, haunting voice of Huong Thanh, with whom Lê has made four albums for ACT.

On the other side there is Lê’s great love of rock, quite normal for an electric guitar virtuoso and brought to bear on his stunning versions of Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child”. On the second previously unreleased track included here, “Louxor Dance”, Lê experiments with ambient music and trip-hop, although like most of his compositions it is still held together by jazzy frames, open enough to allow him to surge naturally into Algerian, Turkish or even Indian musical traditions. The term “world music”, widely misused to describe non-Western and fusion music of any kind, finds it’s true and complete meaning with Nguyên Lê.

TRACK LISITNGS

CD Set-1
1. Magic Constant (LISTEN TO AUDIO)
2. Sangam (LISTEN TO AUDIO)
3. Lo Rossinyol (LISTEN TO AUDIO)
4. Weaving & Awaiting (LISTEN TO AUDIO)
5. Kokopanitsa (LISTEN TO AUDIO)
6. Zafaran
7. Louxor Dance
8. Totsu !
9. Snow on a Flower
10. Cold Winter, Faraway Land
11. Voodoo Child (slight return)
12. Sao Sen

CD Set-2
1. Dding Dek
2. Encanto
3. L'Arkha li jeya
4. Ifrikyia
5. Foow
6. Dance of the Comet
7. The Wind Blew It Away
8. The Black Horse
9. Lupi Pilu
10. Miss One
11. Miracles
12. U Song