The Planet Sleeps (1997)(MP3 320) torrent

The Planet Sleeps (1997)
An interesting collection of lullabies from around the world from Sony's Work label, The Planet Sleeps includes music from most continents. It's a little heavy on the Western European traditions (Gaelic, French, German), but makes up for itself with rewardingly soothing pieces throughout. While it could almost seem to be a bit slow paced and drowsy, one needs to remember the purpose. Some of the highlights on the album include the French lullaby from Algerian Houria Aichi, now living in Paris due to civil war in Algeria. Native Cameroonian Wes Madiko created a nice Pan-African sound on "Sweet Bitowo" by adding in some Zulu vocals from across the continent. Blind Indian dilruba player Baluji Shrivastav contributes a nice piece dedicated to his daughter, and perhaps the most moving piece occurs at the end, with a work from the Forgotten Voices album by the Trebevic Choir, a group of mixed Croats, Serbs, and Bosnians from before the war in Sarajevo. They reunited at one point during the bombing in 1994 to sing once more, and "Oj Talasi" was one of the results of the endeavor. Many have since disappeared as a result of the war, but their music lives on here.

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Everything about this CD, from its eye-popping cool packaging to its beautiful booklet, is wonderful, perhaps peerless. It's a study that spans 16 countries, catching paeans to childhood sleep from varied traditions. The set traverses the Cape Breton Gaelic tradition with the Rankin Family, Haiti with pop stars Boukman Eksperyans, and the African continent with music from Tonga, Algeria, and Cameroon. Despite their distances from each other, at times the songs sound quite alike. Voices might begin alone but then gather into choral size, with a reliance on wordless passages to emphasize the flow of time as sleep encroaches. In execution, the surprises are many. Algerian Houria Aïchi sounds East Indian; the Traditional Japanese Music Ensemble of New York sounds poised somewhere between a stately concert of historical court music and a touching homage to childhood; and German singer Michelle sounds pop-music ready even as she toes the line on singing a sleep-triggering song. Beyond being a great collection of international music, this is probably the most interesting mix available of cultural voices approaching the issue of children sleeping. --Andrew Bartlett

Track List
1. The Rankin Family - Chi Mi Na Morbheanna (Canada)
2. Sherrilyne Blakey-Smith - Yhanaway Hay Yowna (Native American/Iroquois)
3. Hun Sarath, Marc Marder - Phnom Penh Lullaby (Cambodia)
4. The Kingdom Of Tonga Cultural Group - Ana Latu (Tonga)
5. Houria Aichi - Berceuse (Algeria)
6. Familion - Hace Tuto Guagua (Chile)
7. Boukman Eksperyans - Mayi A Gaye (Haiti)
8. Maria Doyle-Kennedy, Kieran Kennedy - Ag Criost An Siol (Ireland)
9. Wes - Sweet Bitowo (Cameroon)
10. Baluji Shrivastav - Sleep Queen Of The Dolls (India)
11. Sophie Meriem Rockwell - Fais Do Do, Colin Mon Petit Frere (France)
12. Yermi Kaplan, Haya Samir - Noomey (Israel/Arabic)
13. Traditional Japanese Music Ensemble Of New York - Itsuki No Komoriuta (Japan)
14. Michelle - Schlafe Mein Prinzchen, Schlaf Ein (Germany)
15. Hinewehi Mohi - Moe Moe (New Zealand/Maori)
16. The Trebevic Choir - Oj Talasi (Bosnia and Herzegovina)







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