Marco Polo: A Moving Sound and "Silk Road"

Today's random tune is performed by A Moving Sound. A Moving Sound is a Taiwanese music group formed in 2000 when vocalist Mia Hsieh met guitarist Scott Prairie. The group writes original compositions based on Taiwanese, Chinese and other Asian traditional music and using traditional instrumentation such as the erhu (Chinese fiddle), the zhong ruan (lute) and traditional dance and vocalization. They have served as a gateway into a genre called Pan-Asian music which the magazine Global Rhythm described as being delicately balanced between worlds. They have released four albums. This song, Silk Road, can be found on their 2006 release Songs Beyond Words.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Moving_Sound; http://www.amovingsound.com/en/

Ganesh is Fresh: A Moving Sound and "Ganesh"

A Moving Sound performs today's random tune, called Ganesh. A Moving Sound is a Taiwanese music group formed in 2000 when vocalist Mia Hsieh met guitarist Scott Prairie. The group writes original compositions based on Taiwanese, Chinese and other Asian traditional music and using traditional instrumentation such as the erhu (Chinese fiddle), the zhong ruan (lute) and traditional dance and vocalization. They have served as a gateway into a genre called Pan-Asian music which the magazine Global Rhythm described as being delicately balanced between worlds. They have released four albums. Ganesh can be found on their 2006 release Songs Beyond Words.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Moving_Sound; http://www.amovingsound.com/en/

Seasonally Appropriate: A-Yue Chang Chen-Yue and "Fall, Winter (秋天冬天)"

A-Yue Chang Chen-Yue, also known as A-Yue and Ayal Komod, brings us today's random tune called Fall, Winter. A Taiwanese-aboriginal member of the (Amis people), he is a songwriter, singer, guitarist and dance music DJ who also goes by the name of DJ Orange. From 2008-2010 he was a member of Superband, but now he fronts his own band, Free Night (also known as Free9). He is multifaceted, delving into hip hop on a song with rapper MC HotDog. He is also an actor, and his 1998 film Connection by Fate was shown at the Venice Film Festival. He has released fifteen albums over his career. Fall, Winter is from his 2002 album One of These Days.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang_Chen-yue

About a Lute: A Moving Sound and "Dombra"

A Moving Sound performs today's random tune, called Dombra. A Moving Sound is a Taiwanese music group formed in 2000 when vocalist Mia Hsieh met guitarist Scott Prairie. The group writes original compositions based on Taiwanese, Chinese and other Asian traditional music and using traditional instrumentation such as the erhu (Chinese fiddle), the zhong ruan (lute) and traditional dance and vocalization. They have served as a gateway into a genre called Pan-Asian music which the magazine Global Rhythm described as being delicately balanced between worlds. They have released four albums. Dombra can be found on their 2006 release Songs Beyond Words. This video was made at the 2012 WOMAD festival.

Stellar: A Moving Sound and "Interplanetary Heart"

A Moving Sound performs today's random tune, called Interplanetary Heart. A Moving Sound is a Taiwanese music group formed in 2000 when vocalist Mia Hsieh met guitarist Scott Prairie. The group writes original compositions based on Taiwanese, Chinese and other Asian traditional music and using traditional instrumentation such as the erhu (Chinese fiddle), the zhong ruan (lute) and traditional dance and vocalization. They have served as a gateway into a genre called Pan-Asian music which the magazine Global Rhythm described as being delicately balanced between worlds. They have released four albums. Interplanetary Heart can be found on their 2006 release Songs Beyond Words. I normally don't post video filmed on phones, but this has good sound, if a little bit wobbly camera work.

Where's the Exit: A-Yue Chang Chen-Yue and "No Way Back Out From the Beginning"

Today's random tune is by A-Yue Chang Chen-Yue (also known as A-Yue and Ayal Komod), a Taiwanese aboriginal (Amis people) songwriter, singer, guitarist and dance music DJ who also goes by the name of DJ Orange. From 2008-2010 he was a member of Superband, but now he fronts his own band, Free Night (also known as Free9). He is multifaceted, and recently crossed over into hip hop on a song with rapper MC HotDog and then a subsequent album. He is also an actor, and his 1998 film Connection by Fate was shown at the Venice Film Festival. He has released fifteen albums over his career. This song, No Way Back Out From the Beginning, is from his 2004 album Useless Guy.

Seeing Spooks: A Moving Sound and "Ghost Lake"

Try as I might, I have not been able to see a ghost. And I have tried. When I lived in Milwaukee, a friend and I went and sat outside a haunted school in Elgin, Illinois that I had read about in a book. The story was that the school was built over a graveyard and since then there were strange happenings at the school, including lights that turned on and off and screams. We hung outside for a while, but nothing happened. I have also driven down lonely, supposedly haunted roads hoping that La Llorona would flag me for a ride. Nothing. I took Megan up to Cimarron, New Mexico on one of our anniversaries to stay in a haunted hotel, the St. James. It may be the closest experience I've had. While a room has been sealed up because too many things were supposedly happening to guests that stayed there, and we investigated and didn't hear or see anything amiss, that night I woke up smelling smoke and thought that was strange but since I didn't hear any commotion to indicate that the old place was on fire, I went back to sleep. When I mentioned it the next day at checkout time, the concierge gave a knowing smile and said "Well, your room is right around the corner from what used to be the poker room." Hmmm...

Despite my failures and near misses, a bunch of people I know have told me their ghost experiences. Megan grew up with a ghost in her house that moved boxes around in the attic and occasionally scared the hell out of them at night by venturing downstairs - apparently only seen by their dog who would stare at nothing with his hair raised. Other friends told of ghosts in their basement or somewhere in their houses. My sister considers herself somewhat clairvoyant, and has told me she has seen ghosts on our property in my hometown and on other property that we own in Northern California. Yet I have seen nothing, heard nothing, felt nothing. Ironically, neither has my friend who spent that evening with me outside that school, even though he signed on to help film a local ghost-chasing show in Arizona and went to all kinds of supposedly haunted places.

I want to believe in ghosts. I love the idea that ghosts can exist, as I have explained in a post about Day of the Dead. I don't like that our experience of ghosts tends to have the implication that these spirits are somehow chained to this world because of regret or that they have become trapped here rather than moving on to something else. But I like the idea that veils can be cast aside between our reality and other realities. But I have yet to experience it myself, at least in the form of ghosts. And if there is anyone who should be haunted by ghosts, given my history, it is me.

All this has nothing to do with A Moving Sound's Ghost Lake, or does it? The song is about a young tribal girl in Taiwan who falls in love with a lake spirit, ignores her fellow villagers shouts and walks into the lake never to be seen again. It is framed as a story of true love - in this case the spirit is not unfriendly. There is a veil between the worlds, and just as spirits can come through to ours, we can walk through to theirs as well. Again, I find that fascinating, and a hopeful view of ghosts and spirits.

A Moving Sound consists of Mia Hsieh (vocalist and dancer), Scott Prairie (vocalist, zhong ruan and bass), I-Fang Chen (erhu) and I-Tung Pan (zhong ruan). The group was started in 2000 when Mia Hsieh met Scott Prairie in New York City with the goal of infusing Taiwanese traditional music with other Taiwanese and Asian styles and incorporating their unique creative vision. Their pan-Asian approach has garnered international attention, as has their use of traditional instruments to create contemporary sounds. They have released four CDs. Ghost Lake appears on their 2007 CD Songs Beyond Words and the compilation CD A Moving Sound (2011).

No Backtracking: A-Yue Chang Chen-Yue and "No Way Back Out from the Beginning"

Today's random tune has the intriguing title of No Way Back Out From the Beginning. I'm trying to wrap my mind around that. This is a title that's translated from Chinese, so it may be an approximation, but it still has me thinking.

When I look at it, I think I see it as conceptualizing choice. In other words, in making choices, we stand usually at a metaphorical meeting of many paths. These paths stretch off into the distance and we can only clearly see what's just in front of us. Afterwards, it gets hazy and foggy until we can't see anything at all, just our path disappearing into the mists of the future. And that's all we have to go on when making our choices. This is the beginning referred to in the title.

But then, there's the concept of backing out which is negated in the title. The title says that there is no way to get away from the beginning. In other words, once you get there, you are stuck. The past is closed to you, and the future is unknown. I suppose that every minute of our lives is this way. There we stand at an infinite number of beginnings, with an infinite number of choices to proceed, some clearer than others for the short term, but all unclear in the distance. And every choice we make entails some risk. And then we choose, and start down the path, and another choice comes up. As I type, I am at the beginning, and every letter that appears is a choice, and then another choice is made and a new letter appears.

And there is no backing away. We always move forward, never back. Time does not allow us to reverse our steps or go back down the path whence we came. It's always forward into the mists and risk, the good choices followed by bad choices, followed by good ones again. When I think about it, our lives are sort of like living in a scary forest with frightening sounds behind us closing off the path, and the only way ahead is through the gloom and darkness as we seek light and safety. Most of us navigate it all right, but we all go through our uncertainties and fears.

Kind of amazing that a simple title of a song by a Taiwanese musician would cause so much mental gymnastics! Today's random tune is by A-Yue Chang Chen-Yue (also known as A-Yue and Ayal Komod), a Taiwanese aboriginal (Amis people) songwriter, singer, guitarist and dance music DJ who also goes by the name of DJ Orange. From 2008-2010 he was a member of Superband, but now he fronts his own band, Free Night (also known as Free9). He is multifaceted, and recently crossed over into hip hop on a song with rapper MC HotDog and then a subsequent album. He is also an actor, and his 1998 film Connection by Fate was shown at the Venice Film Festival. He has released fifteen albums over his career. No Way Back Out From the Beginning is from his 2004 album Useless Guy.