The Silk Road - A Musical Caravan (2010)

"What if Marco Polo had owned a tape recorder?" This intriguing concept is raised in the liner notes to this impressive 2CD set entitled "The Silk Road", which wanders along ancient Asian trade routes known as the Silk Road. The first disc, "Masters & Traditions", deals with formal styles performed by and for sophisticated connoisseurs. Meanwhile, the music on "Minstrels and Lovers" is played by amateurs who are part of daily life and thus reach a wider audience. The imaginary caravan passes through Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Uzbekistan, Mongolia and Afghanistan, encountering nomads, mystics and bards along the way. The instruments are scratchy, pungent, and/or serene, while the singers weave a potent spell out of a millenniums worth of slow-changing rural and urban vistas. In the opening essay, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the projects artistic director, pleads for intercultural communication and empathy. This compilation provides an exotic, brave, entertaining first step in that direction." (Christina Roden, Amazon)