A Moving Sound refines its pan-Asian/world beat sound with Starshine, which was released earlier this month. Everything from African drumming to Chinese opera is thrown into the mix by this five-piece group, led by the husband-and-wife team of producer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Scott Prairie and vocalist and dancer Mia Hsieh (謝韻雅).
Overall the album feels darker and moodier than the group’s past two albums, but the songs are accessible and engaging — an approach that has earned the group widespread acclaim and a loyal following.
A droning, almost post-punk, bass groove drives the title track, which is inspired by the concept of incarnation and sets the album’s tone. The tune begins with the reedy sound of the satar (薩塔琴), a bowed lute associated with traditional Uighur music in western China, and builds up to a set of vocal acrobatics from Hsieh, whose voice soars and glides beautifully at the high range. An ominous-sounding Buddhist chant in the last third of the song sounds incongruous at first, but then fades smoothly into a swirl of melodies that has flavors of Central Asia.
Mixing and matching different ethnic music traditions often runs the risk of falling into cliche or creating a watered-down pastiche. But A Moving Sound’s music is fresh and original, particularly in songs like the festive Harvest Song, written by Hsieh and based on a traditional Taiwanese Aboriginal melody and lyrics. The satar and hand percussion lend a touch of exotica, but it’s Hsieh’s spirited vocal delivery and her backing singers that carry the song.
A Moving Sound offers a refreshing take on Chinese opera in the folk-rock-tinged Dynasty, with some eerie singing from Hsieh, as well as a joyous rendition of the Taiwanese folk tune Toh De Gong (Ode to the Earth God, 土地公柏). The album showcases solid performances from the band’s instrumentalists: Alex Wu (吳政君) on percussion and sax synthesizer; Lo Tang-Hsuan (羅堂軒) on erhu; and Hsieh Hua-chou (謝華洲), who plays guitar and the oud-like zhong ruan (中阮).
Fans of the group in particular will enjoy the accompanying DVD, which has footage from international performances, outtakes from photo shoots and interesting dance and vocal improvisations performed by Hsieh and Prairie. The liner notes provide each song’s backstory, which might ruin the mystery for some. Listen to the CD first and then read the notes later to learn about the mindscape of this one-of-a-kind group.
— DAVID CHEN
Joanna Wang (王若琳) quickly gained a following last year with her debut album Start From Here, and it’s not difficult to see why. This 21-year-old singer’s voice — rich, husky and pitch-perfect — locates her in jazz diva territory.
Though Wang is well suited to singing standards, she seems most comfortable with folk and pop rock. She wasted no time in following up her successful debut with a double CD set, Joanna and 王若琳 and The Adult Storybook. The two albums could be seen as two sides of the same coin.
The first clearly targets the mainstream with polished rock tunes and feel-good Americana-sounding ballads a la Norah Jones, perhaps the mold Sony Music fancies for Wang. Nonetheless, many of the songs — co-written with Roger Joseph Manning Jr and recorded with session musicians in Los Angeles — are top notch and tailored to Wang’s voice.
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